Biography

Name: Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini
Age: 22
Nationality: Argentinian
Height: 169cm
Weight: 67kg
Place of Birth: Rosario (Argentina)
Date of Birth: 24.06.1987
Brothers: Rodrigo, Matias, Hijos
Sister: Marisol
Mother: Celia Cuccittini
Father: Jorge Messi

Footballing Career

Lionel Andrés “Leo” Messi (born 24 June 1987 in Rosario) is an Argentine footballer who plays for Spanish La Liga club FC Barcelona and the Argentine national team. He is often touted in the media as “the new Diego Maradona”.

Lionel Messi started playing football at a very early age for his hometown club, Newell’s Old Boys. From the age of 11, he suffered from a hormone deficiency and as his parents were unable to pay for treatment in Argentina, they decided to move to Barcelona, Spain. Shortly after arriving, Lionel tried his luck with a trial at FC Barcelona, despite being only 13 years of age.

Messi excelled at the trial and rapidly found himself starting for the Barcelona B team, averaging more than a goal per game, and shortly found himself playing for the Barcelona senior team on a regular basis at the age of 17. With the Catalans, Leo has went from strength to strength, capturing numerous La Liga titles and Champions League medals.

For a detailed look at Messi’s life as a professional footballer, see the history pages, honours page and statistics page.

Personal Life

Messi, being the media darling that he is, has been linked to a number of girls, of which it has been said he had been dating. The fist of these was Macarena Lemos, a young Argentine from his home town of Rosario. He has in the past also been linked to the Argentine model, Luciana Salazar, who was the official Argentinian representative model at the 2006 World Cup. However, both these stories were quashed as not true. Lionel stunned many of his fans when, In January 2009, he told “Hat Trick Barça”, in response to a question posed by a child “I have a girlfriend and she is living in Argentina, I am relaxed and happy”. The girl has since been identified as ‘Antonella’, a fellow native of Rosario.

With an ever increasing reputation, Konami approached Leo to work on their famous football gaming series, ‘Pro Evolution Soccer’. He features on the front cover of both the video games Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 and 2010, whilst also undergoing promotional campaigns and motion-capturing for for the games.

Blessed with supreme talents on the pitch, Leo has also proven to be something of an angel off it. He has been well documented for his humbled and mature attitude in conferences, in age of which such qualities are rarer to find in the game. To bolster this tag further, Lionel made a tribute to his father Jorge after scoring a goal for Argentina against Venezuela, by revealing a message under his shirt. Furthermore in 2009, he showed respect to sufferers of fragile x syndrome after scoring in El Clasico, and then in the off-season worked with the Family Association of Spinal Muscular Atrophy to aid victims of this condition.