Messi is from which country? All you have to know about the Barcelona's star

Lionel Messi was born on June 24, 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina. No one imagined that this child of 3 kilos and 47 centimeters.  He was going to be considered the best soccer player in history. Lionel has Italian ancestry; his paternal great-grandfather arrived at Argentina in 1883.

Lionel Messi's beginnings in Soccer

At the age of five, he took his first steps in soccer with Grandoli, a small team in his neighborhood coached by his father. Then, in 1995, he went on to train in the youth ranks of Newells Old Boys, a club with which he won the Friendship Cup in Peru in 1997.  At the age of eight he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency, which prevented him from having a normal physical development.

Messi's arrival at Barcelona

The treatment was very expensive and his parents could not afford it. It was then that he was transferred to Barcelona, the Catalan team took over the costs of his treatment.  Messi made his debut in Barcelona's first team in December 2003, in a friendly against José Mourinho's Porto, although his official match debut came in the 2004/2005 season, in a league match against Espanyol, becoming, at the age of 16, the youngest Barcelona player to play a match in the First Division of the Spanish League.

Lionel Messi in the Argentine National Team

On July 10, 2021, Argentina won the Copa América beating Brazil 1- 0 in Rio de Janeiro, winning Messi his first title with the senior national team. He was also voted the best of the tournament and top scorer with four goals. In 2006, the captain was the youngest player of the national team to attend a World Cup. With his national team, he was runner-up in the 2007 Copa America. In 2008, at the Beijing Olympic Games, Messi won a Gold Medal.

Lionel Messi's quotes

"I care more about being a good person than being the best player in the world."

"I have never stopped being Argentine, and I have never wanted to stop being Argentine. I feel very proud to be Argentine."