Lionel Messi Is One of the Best Football Players

Categories: Football

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Lionel Messi is the world famous Argentinian soccer player. A lot of soccer fans around the world think that Leo is the greatest player of the modern generation and the history of soccer. Born in 1987, in Rosario, Argentina, Lionel Messi is currently playing for a Spanish soccer club called, FC Barcelona as a right wing. I have never really think about who is my favorite soccer player until I saw Lionel Messi for the first time. I have seen him playing in the Champions League against the best Ukrainian team and he showed all the stadium some soccer magic.

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Messi has an unbelievable style of both individual skill and teamwork. His insane control of the ball, amazing shots and playmaking skills made me love Leo and his new Barcelona. I would never enjoy soccer that much without this small genius and his amazing dribbling skills. Lionel does not only score a ton of goals but also gives a lot of assists every single season.

For the soccer fans of my generation, there is only one player in the world who could be named as the legend and have his own page in the history of soccer book; Leo Messi. There is even a healthy argument for why the Argentine could be the best player in the soccer history.

A superstar is a player well known in the world and how tough is it to believe that his soccer career could have faltered even before it started as he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency when he was only 11.

To understand the impact of the treatment, we just need to take a look at the numbers. Messi was just 4’2” when he was 11 and due to the treatment, his current height is 5’7”. Despite this short stature, the genius within him was on display from a very young age. As a result, Messi remained shorter than his peers until he was treated for the same. “When I was 11 years old they discovered that I had a growth hormone deficiency and I had to start a treatment to help me to grow. Every night I had to stick a needle into my legs, night after night after night, every day of the week, and this over a period of three years. “I was so small, they said that when I went onto the pitch, or when I went to school, I was always the smallest of all. It was like this until I finished the treatment and I then started to grow properly” said Messi to the Telegraph.

The coach at his childhood club Newell’s Old Boys, Gabriel Digerolamo said, “when we went to Mar del Plata, or around there, before the game, he would do keepy-uppies and they would throw money at him. Fifteen minutes would go by and he still hadn’t lost control of the ball. So the people would come up and throw a coin at him. In Peru, I think he got up to 1,200 touches. He was nine-years-old.” The Messi’s family, being a middle-class one, they couldn’t pay for the treatment after a certain point. However, Newell’s loss was Barcelona’s gain. The Catalans were impressed with the 13-year-old and they even drew up a contract on a paper napkin with Jorge Messi threatening to fly his kid back to Argentina if he was not signed up immediately. That decision by the Barcelona sporting director, Charly Rexach, is one of the biggest and luckiest moments in the history of this sport. The contract was agreed on the grounds that Barcelona would provide the necessary medical support for the young Leo. Barcelona spent about $1500 a month for the injections and they helped Messi attain an average height that suited his strengths of balance, agility, and speed. The injections not only help in increasing his height, but also countering several other internal issues such as pituitary function, problems of the skin and teeth, poor vision and a lower than normal immunity.

According to Sportskeeda, while Messi’s GHD is pretty well-known, there is another well-known known but the unconfirmed aspect of his health. Speculations were rife that Messi was mildly autistic and was diagnosed with Asperger‘s syndrome when he was eight years old. “Asperger’s syndrome is a disorder where the person interacts differently with the world and can have difficulties dealing with social situations. Occasionally, these people can possess outrageous talent in certain areas, which lends credence to the rumors of Messi being autistic. However, he dealt with that hurdle with an understanding and maturity beyond his age and it is no wonder that his ability and achievements stand miles above his peers.

With just 17 years old Messi made his first appearance in the official game against FC Espanol, in 2004. Making his debut in the 2004–05 season, he broke the La Liga record for the youngest footballer to play a league game, and also the youngest to score a league goal. That year Messi was able to make his debut in the Spanish first division league, and also win the league along with other great players like Eto’o, Deco, and Ronaldinho, etc. Major honors soon followed as Barcelona won the Spanish La Liga in Messi's debut season, and have made a double of the La Liga and Champions League in 2006. Lionel’s breakthrough season was in 2006–2007.

He became a first team regular, scoring a hat-trick in El Clásico and finishing with 19 goals and 3 assists in 40 games for Barcelona. A lot of soccer fans think that the most successful season for Messi and his team was the 2008–09 season, in which Messi scored 38 goals to play an integral part in a treble-winning campaign. Messi was the top scorer in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship with six goals, including two in the final against Nigeria. Very soon Messi will become an established member of Argentina's senior international team. In 2006, he became the youngest Argentine to play in the FIFA World Cup and he won a runners-up medal at the Copa América tournament the same year. In 2008, he won his first international honor, an Olympic gold medal for Argentina in Beijing.

Messi is clearly the Catalan club’s highest paid player and the highest paid player in top 5 European leagues with weekly wages of £560,000. However, with Spain’s tax rates which stand at 52%, the Argentine captain gets to take home only £270,000. Lionel has deals with Pepsi, Air Europa and Dolce & Gabbana that are worth $8 million a year to him. He also has a very unique deal with Adidas that allows him to have a say in boot designs. The Barcelona star is currently in the middle of a seven-year contract with the sports merchandise company that is worth $140 million which breaks down to $20 million annually. His deal with Adidas makes him the highest paid ambassador for the company, second being basketball player Derrick Rose of the New York Knicks who earns $14 million a year.

Since soccer is the most famous sport in the world, it is also a huge part of popular culture. According to the Singapore Travel Guide, the term 'soccer' is popular in countries where this kind of sport is not as popular as the others. Soccer fans love 'derbies'. These are two matches per season between rivals from the same city, which receive large support from the fans. The soccer matches in these cases often resemble political and social battles, rather than sports championships. Soccer has its own huge industry of banners, scarves, and shirts with the team symbol of different signs which show the support and love for the specific team. Different football attributes like soccer balls signed by the teams are regarded as valuable souvenirs and serve a part of soccer history. The importance of soccer in the society of today is a widely recognized issue in many socio-political discussions.

Messi boasts extremely popular Facebook and Instagram pages but is not on Twitter, save for a 'Team Messi' account created by sponsors Adidas. Messi has the second-most popular Facebook page among athletes of any sport, with 89 million likes, and is fourth on Instagram with 97 million followers after Ronaldo, Dwayne Johnson, and Neymar. Social media is a strong part of popular culture in the 21 century. Using social networks Messi can promote and share any type of information to 100 million people around the world. Barcelona's Lionel Messi beat rival Cristiano Ronaldo (second) and ex-club teammate Neymar (third) to be named the most popular football shirt on the planet.

Many soccer fans can’t even imagine what soccer athletes do outside a soccer field. People consider some soccer players to be self-centered and greedy, but they only see what they do inside the soccer pitch and not outside of it. What many don't know is that many soccer athletes give back to society and Lionel Messi is a good example of an athlete that is giving back to society. According to Charity and Help to the Community, Messi has an estimated salary of about 110 million euros per year and much of his money goes towards charities. The Lionel Messi Foundation which he founded in 2007 is to help pay health care and education for vulnerable children. He is also giving back to his home country by providing Argentinian children with the service of being treated in Spain to those who suffer from illness and paying all of their expenses. Also, Messi gave his hometown, Rosario, Argentina, 600,000 euros to help rebuild a children's hospital. Lionel Messi is doing an incredible charitable work. According to Dream Team, Messi’s foundation helped to build 20 classrooms for schools in Syria, with the invaluable work helping over 1,600 children caught up in the horrific civil war back into the education program.

Leo’s desire to do more charity for adults and kids increased in 2007 after visiting a hospital for terminally ill children. From this visit, Messi decided to set up his own foundation, the Lionel Messi Foundation, which has since gone onto help with medical research and fund medical centers in Argentina, Spain and around the world. In July 2010 Messi visited Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake that left much in the Central American country in ruin. Messi said about the experience: “It was overwhelming to see the overcrowded displacement camps, the poverty in which people here live.” In 2013, Messi traveled to Bangkok to meet and play football with young people living with disabilities. In 2015, Lionel Messi donated £315,000 to UNICEF on the Spanish equivalent of Children in Need, but perhaps his most notable piece of charitable work was in 2016 when he met six-year-old Afghan child Murtaza Ahmadi. The boy was pictured wearing a blue plastic bag and had drawn Messi’s name with his iconic number 10 emblazoned on the front. Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organizing committee arranged Messi’s visit to Doha, where he came face-to-face with young Murtaza, and the event captured the world’s hearts. Unlike other footballers, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner doesn’t choose to spend his money on casinos, race horses and other indulgences. Instead, the 30-year-old Argentine forward focuses on charity work – which is centered mainly on kids.

Messi’s new contract with Barcelona will be worth £583,000 ($826,500). He makes plenty off the field as well, earning $28 million ($20 million) in endorsements. He's recognized for his blinding footwork, relentless goalscoring, and incredible consistency, and all those traits combine to make Barcelona's Lionel Messi one of the most well-known faces on the planet not just in the world of football but to everyone. Messi has contracts with world famous brands like Gillette, Foot Bubbles, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, Pepsi, Adidas, Lays and many others. According to Bleacher Report, as an aside to Messi’s huge and richly deserved contracts at the Camp Nou, it makes him a marketable brand of his own, leaving other companies and organizations eager to work with him to promote their own products.

All those facts make Lionel Messi a huge part of the popular culture in the 21 century. Messi’s foundation saves someone’s life every day. Soccer is changed forever after Leo made his debut. Messi scores and gives insane goals and assists every single week. Messi became the face of the most famous world brands and companies. People see Leo on TV every day, people read books about his records and childhood biography. Lionel Messi jersey makes 100 million dollars every year for FC Barcelona. People buy Leo’s products, his fans support him and follow his career since he made his first step in Barcelona. Messi became an idol for a huge amount of people on this planet. Leo’s childhood story motivates a lot of kids and adults to make the next step and not to give up.

From the autistic kid that can’t grow up and has problems literary in 50% of his body, Leo became an athlete who changed soccer history forever. He beat almost every record in the world and he keeps doing that right now. You will never find a better example of the kid with a dream. Lionel proved that faith in own dream and hard work can change everything upside down. Messi will keep impress soccer fans and beat his own records in the next 5 years. It means he will play an important role in the popular culture and improve his projects. Messi is going to build new soccer academies, hospitals and he will keep helping his home city as much as he can. The boy with a dream became a world changer. There are going to be more and more new people in the popular culture, but everyone will remember Lionel Messi on and of the soccer pitch.