Argentine footballer Lionel Andrés Messi is one of the greatest and highest-paid football players in the world and regarded by many as the greatest of all time. Like most extraordinary people, Messi’s remarkable success did not come from pure luck or accident. In fact, he worked extremely hard and trained almost every single day to become who he is today.
 

Messi was born to a poor family in Rosario, Santa Fe Province on 24 June 1987. His father Jorge Horacio Messi was a factory worker and his mother Celia María Cuccittini would work as a part-time cleaner. At the age of five, he began playing football for a local club Grandoli and he was coached by his father Jorge. He was seen as something special, a young boy who seemed to dance with the soccer ball. Everyone clearly saw that this was a child who had potential.
 

In 1995 he switched to play for the Newell’s Old Boys Youth Soccer team in Rosario and he became a star. He was the smallest boy on the team yet was easily the most skilled and as time passed on it was obvious that there was something wrong. At the age of eleven years old he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency, and he needed treatment. The cost of the treatment, however, was far too expensive and his family could not pay for it, the situation seemed hopeless. Messi soon came to the notice of the sporting director of FC Barcelona Carles Rexach in a trial match.
 

At the age of 13, Messi was offered to play for FC Barcelona in Spain, and in return, he was promised to pay his medical bills. He moved to Barcelona where he got enrolled in the club’s youth academy. From the minute Messi stepped on the pitch he shocked all those who played with him, he made defenders feel as if there was nothing they can do to stop him. It proved to be a turning point in his life. Barcelona’s sporting director was confident Lionel was the type of youngster that the team needed and so he sat down with Lionel’s father in a local restaurant. They didn’t have any paper, so they wrote the child’s contract on a napkin, a document that is now a piece of priceless sporting history.
 

He drew worldwide attention and was compared with one of the former legendary Argentinean football players Diego Maradona for his unique technical skills and fierce style of play. Maradona himself revealed his regard about his fellow countryman to the BBC, “I see him as very similar to me”.
 

In 2005, he made his very first record by becoming the youngest player to score a goal for the franchise, and in the same year, he led Argentina to the title in the under-20 World Cup. He debuted in 2006 World Cup as Argentina’s youngest player and became the 6th youngest goalscorer in the history of the FIFA World Cup. Messi has achieved several titles and awards including, FIFA Ballon d'Or (5 times), UEFA Champions League (4 times), and several others. He is a walking legend and has been labeled by some as being one of the greatest soccer players ever.
 

𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐍𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐩 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢, 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬; 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬.