Full Name: Lionel Andrés Messi Nickname: Leo, Lio, Pulga Date of Birth: 24 de Junio de 1987 Birthplace: Rosario- Argentina         Nationality: Current Club: FC Barcelona Position: Striker Height: 1,69 meters International Matches: 24     Year of debut: 2005 Club debut: FC Barcelona

With just five years, Messi took his first steps in football at the club in his neighborhood, Grandoli, where he had coached his father, Jorge. Two years later began to train in the lower divisions of Newell's Old Boys, where he played until 2000. Enrique Dominguez, who was his coach, said later: "I turned in 1999, but knew him from school football, when he was seven or eight years. And the kid with the ball did things against physics. Al only thing he saw was to make plays and Maradona. "

In the eleven years was rejected at River Plate, as it detected a hormonal disease that affected their growth and whose treatment cost $ 900 a month for three years. For a year and a half, the work of the company in which his father worked to help cover the costs, even if the economic picture is complicated. It was then that George talked to some relatives who lived in Lerida in Catalonia, and decided to leave to earn more money.

With thirteen years, was tested Lionel Messi FC Barcelona, under the gaze of Carles Rexach. Despite playing with kids two years older than him, created a big impression, despite its problems of growth and the important difference that this is at that age. The Catalan club were then offered to pay the expensive treatment in exchange for the football team joined the children outside, where he quickly began to emphasize.