Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi is a left-footed forward born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Argentina. He plays for Inter Miami CF of Major League Soccer and serves as the club's captain. His standing rests on a World Cup triumph with Argentina and on a Ballon d'Or record he has held without interruption since 2012.

Inter Miami list him at 5 ft 7 in.

Messi reached Barcelona's La Masia academy at the age of 13 and made an impact from his first day. His first appearance in the Barcelona shirt came in a friendly against Porto in November 2003 at the age of 16 during the opening of the Estádio do Dragão.

Messi's competitive debut for Barcelona came on 16 October 2004 aged 17 wearing number 30, replacing Deco in the 82nd minute of a Catalan derby in week seven with the club top of the league. Over 17 seasons he made 778 first-team appearances and scored 672 goals at 0.86 per match, becoming the club's all-time leading scorer. He reached that status at 24 in 2011/12 with a hat-trick against Granada that passed César. His 672 goals surpassed the 643 that Pelé scored for Santos between 1956 and 1974 and set a record for a single club.

In 2008/09 he was the star of the team that won the treble and then all six major trophies in the same calendar year. He scored 73 goals in official competitions in the 2011/12 season, the most by a player in a single campaign, and 91 official goals in the 2012 calendar year, a record for a player in a single year.

His records extend beyond goals: he has played the most games and won the most trophies and Ballon d'Or awards in the club's 124-year history. He scored 38 direct free-kicks in La Liga, more than any other player in the competition's history. He won six of his Ballon d'Or awards while playing for Barcelona.

Lionel Messi holds the record for the most wins of the Ballon d'Or with eight, a tally completed by his 2023 award.

He won the World Cup Golden Ball in 2014 and again in 2022, the only player to take the award twice.

Messi's senior Argentina career began on 17 August 2005 in Budapest against Hungary, where he was sent off almost immediately. He retired as the country's record appearance maker with 207 caps and 126 goals. Across youth and Olympic levels as well as the senior side he collected six titles. His first international honours came at the 2005 Under-20 World Cup in the Netherlands, where he finished as top scorer and best player, and three years later he took Olympic gold at the Beijing Games.

Messi brought a 21-year international career to a close with a final appearance for Argentina in Buenos Aires, scoring his 126th international goal in front of 85,000 spectators in a 3-0 win over Benin. He announced his retirement from international football on 31 August 2026 — seven weeks after Argentina lost the World Cup final to Spain — and said he had written the decision on 21 July, two days after the final, with his father's death in early August leaving him more convinced.

He first retired from international football in 2016 after Argentina lost the Copa América final to Chile on penalties, before returning. His senior titles with Argentina are the 2021 Copa América, the 2022 Finalissima, the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Copa América.

Messi's World Cup record spans six tournaments, 34 matches and 21 goals, with three finals reached and one won. At the 2022 tournament he collected 11 Man of the Match awards, became the first player to assist at five World Cups, made 19 appearances as captain and competed in a fifth tournament.

At the 2026 World Cup he scored eight goals and made four assists, and at 39 became the oldest Argentine to score at the tournament. He scored in nine successive World Cup matches, a run stretching back to the 2022 tournament and a competition record, and his 33 World Cup goal involvements are a tournament record, with 22 of them coming in the 2022 and 2026 campaigns. He briefly became the tournament's all-time leading scorer before Kylian Mbappé overtook him.

Argentina beat France on penalties in the 2022 final, winning the shootout 4-2 to claim their third World Cup 36 years after their previous title. Messi made his World Cup debut in 2006 against Serbia and Montenegro, assisting Hernán Crespo and scoring in a 6-0 win when he was 18.

He became the first player to start three World Cup finals, with Cafu the only other player to feature in three.

Messi joined Inter Miami in July 2023 as a free agent after two seasons at Paris Saint-Germain, following more than two decades at Barcelona, initially as a Designated Player on a contract through the 2025 MLS season. In Miami he reunited with coach Gerardo Martino, who had won MLS Cup with Atlanta United in 2018 and had also coached him at Barcelona. He helped the club win the 2023 Leagues Cup and the 2024 Supporters' Shield, taking the Leagues Cup best player and top scorer awards with 10 goals in seven appearances.

His 1.03 goals per game ranked second among Golden Boot winners since 2005 and trailed only Carlos Vela's average from the 2019 campaign.

Inter Miami beat Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 to win the club's fourth trophy and its first MLS Cup.

Inter Miami announced a contract extension for their captain running through the 2028 MLS season.

In 2025 he won the MLS Golden Boot with 29 goals, finishing ahead of Denis Bouanga and Sam Surridge on 24 each, and became the only player in the sport's history to win both the MLS Golden Boot and the European Golden Boot. He was also named the 2025 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player, becoming the second player to win the award twice, joining Preki, and the first to do so in consecutive seasons.

He was named MLS Cup MVP after providing two assists in the final, which took his postseason tally to nine. He recorded 48 goal contributions in 28 matches in the 2025 season, the second-most in a single MLS campaign.