Happy Birthday, Lionel Messi

With seven Ballon d’Or trophies and a World Cup to his name, Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest player to ever play football. The Argentine maestro celebrated his 36th birthday on June 24.

Lionel Messi’s first goal

FMay 1, 2005, is a special day for all Lionel Messi fans. After all, Messi, at the age of 17, had scored his official goal in Barcelona jersey against Albacete that night. He would eventually go on to score more than 600 goals for the Catalan giants.

Argentina debut

Lionel Messi earned his debut for Argentina during a friendly match in August 2005. Messi, 18, came on the pitch as a second-half substitute against Hungary. The outcome was not quite smooth for Messi as he received a red card after 43 seconds.

Messi’s Olympic gold

After a long wait and arduous work, Lionel Messi won the World Cup in 2022. But long before his epic World Cup glory, he claimed a piece of silverware in international football at the 2008 Beijing Olympic. Messi won the much-coveted gold medal in 2008.

Messi is a Barcelona legend

Messi is a Barcelona legend

Lionel Messi broke Barcelona’s goal-scoring record after recording a hat-trick in 2012. Messi touched Cesar Rodriguez's record of 232 goals with his first strike against Granada. The Argentine went on to set a the goal-scoring record by finding the back of the two more times in that game.