Image via Complex Original
Lionel Messi—the world’s greatest footballer—turns 26 years old today, which is kind of hard to believe considering it feels like he has been dominating the game forever. The former prodigy who debuted for the Barcelona senior team at the tender age of 17 rapidly rose to his status as one of the most recognized athletes in the world. He has made even the most talented of opponents look foolish with his incredible foot skills and dazzling finishing ability. Messi has set numerous records along the way, and by the time he's done he surely will have added countless others. While much is known about the Argentinian star, some of the more incredible facts about his life and career go largely overlooked. Here are 26 Things You Didn't Know About Lionel Messi.
His infant son is already an official member of the Newell's Old Boys' supporters club.
No more than three days after he was born, Messi's son Thiago was already a prime target. Newell's Old Boys—Messi's original club—was first in line and managed to sign the infant to a supporters club contract when he had barely hit 72 hours old. It was Messi's father who negotiated the contract apparently, so Thiago can at least take comfort in the fact that his parents aren't exploiting him...yet.
He shares the record for most international goals scored in a calendar year.
Along with England's Vivian Woodward (who accomplished the feat in the early 1900s), Messi is the only player to have scored 25 goals in a calendar year during international competition with both his club and his country. Given the number of international competitions played now, it speaks volumes about Messi's ability on the big stage that he has been able to separate himself from the numerous stars who also feature for both their teams. It seems that the only threat to the record may in fact be Messi himself.
He is the only player in history to win three European Golden Boots.
Given how many incredible scorers have come through European football (including legends past and present like Eusebio, Gerd Muller, Thierry Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo), it is remarkable that just one man has managed to win the Golden Boot three times. However, a lot of what Messi has accomplished already seems to defy logic, so you can just add this one to the list.
He has two cousins who also play professionally.
Clearly, footballing talent runs in the Messi gene pool. Lionel's cousins Emanuel and Maxi Biancucchi both play for solid clubs in South America, although neither had made the leap to a premier club or senior national team. We guess it's safe to say Lionel's spot atop the family football throne is safe for the foreseeable future.
A Messi-themed biopic will be premiering just in time for the 2014 World Cup.
Has Messi had an interesting life so far? Sure. Has it been so fascinating as to necessitate an entire movie be made? Less likely. However, that's just what the world will be getting in the run up to next summer's World Cup. Hollywood-based Epic Pictures Group is currently meeting with writers and directors to helm this film which will be (allegedly) the "Rocky" of soccer. Call us skeptics, but if this one ever makes it to theaters it is probably going to be a train wreck.
The buyout clause in his Barcelona contract is for a staggering €250 million.
If, for some reason, Barcelona decides they don't want Messi anymore, he is going to get seriously paid. Like, we're talking $330-plus million. That's more than the GDP of 10 countries. Somehow, we don't think it will come to that; not only could Barcelona not afford it, but paying the greatest player in the world to ply his trade for someone else doesn't make much business sense.
He was ranked ahead of David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo as the world's richest footballer in 2012.
How rich are we talking? Try €33 million ($43,797,600) in salary and endorsements. Somehow, in 2013 he'll see his income slip slightly to just €30 million ($39,816,000), which will relegate him back to second place behind Beckham. We worry for his financial safety.
He maintains daily contact with his teammates from his youth team in Argentina.
This is very reminiscent of LeBron James, who likewise maintains ties with his friends from before he had gained international fame. It's nice to know that the diminutive Messi still cares about the little people, many of whom probably haven't gone on to quite the same level of success.
He is already tied for the second-most goals in the history of the Argentina national team (35 in 82 appearances).
Again, Messi just turned 26. If he wants to, he's got at least three World Cup cycles left in him before he starts to decline. That's three more rounds of friendlies, qualifiers and actual World Cup matches to add to his already impressive total. While he's got a ways to go to catch Gabriel Batistuta's record of 56, it's safe to say he's got time on his side.
He is the first player in history to score in consecutive matches against every team in his league.
As part of Messi's absurd 21-consecutive La Liga game goal-scoring streak, he tallied against every single team in the league. While it's easy to feast on the dregs of the league, let's not forget that this also includes fellow juggernaut Real Madrid as well as perennial powers Atletico Madrid, Real Sociedad and Valencia. Taking apart each one of those defenses requires serious skills, and there is perhaps no other player in the world capable of doing that without so much as a one game hiccup.
He holds the world record for consecutive league matches with a goal (21).
In a low-scoring sport like soccer, scoring a goal in consecutive games is pretty impressive. It takes a combination of fitness, skill, and a little luck to be in the right place during two straight games, and over the course of a season many of the game's top scorers fail to achieve this target. Doing it in 10 in a row is practically unheard of, especially on the professional level. The defenses and scouting are simply too good. So where does 21 register on that scale?
He has already become Barcelona's leading scorer in club history, setting the record in March 2012 at age 24.
Barcelona has been around for 113 years. They have won or finished runner-up in La Liga 45 times. Obviously, they've had a lot of great goal scorers to win that many games. At just 24 years old, Messi will obliterate absolutely all of them by the time he hangs up his boots for good.
He, not Diego Maradona, was the first Argentinian ever to be named FIFA World Player of the Year.
This one is more of a technicality than an indictment of Maradona. The award was created in 1991, at which point Maradona had begun his downward spiral after the absurd highs of his transcendent 1986 World Cup performance.
He scored his own "Hand of God" goal in 2006-07 vs. Espanyol.
The Maradona-Messi comparison is an oft-made one, and with good reason. Both diminutive players have scored some incredible goals for Argentina as well as their clubs, truly earning the accolades each has received. The parallels reach new heights, though, when considering that Messi has even tallied his own "Hand of God" goal. Let's hope he doesn't keep following Maradona's footsteps much longer.
He is the youngest player ever to score in the legendary "El Clasico" rivalry.
Predating La Liga itself, El Clasico is one of soccer's greatest rivalries that has seen countless legendary players take part on both sides. In scoring prowess, Messi stands above them all; he is currently tied with Real Madrid's Alfredo Di Stefano for most in the history of the rivalry (18), and it should only take one or perhaps two more games for him to tally the record-setting goal.
At 17 years and 114 days, he was the youngest player ever to appear in a La Liga game.
While this record has since been broken by Messi's former teammate Bojan Krkic, at the time it was a huge deal. La Liga has been around since 1929 and has seen thousands upon thousands of players come through it, so setting any kind of all-time mark is an amazing feat. Had Barcelona not been a powerhouse already, Messi probably would have set the record almost a year earlier; he made his first team debut in a friendly against Porto in November 2003 when he was 16 years and 145 days old.
River Plate could have signed him as a youth, but refused to pay his $900 per month medical bills.
Somehow, we think they regret this decision. They probably could have sold $900 a month worth of Messi merchandise to cover the cost, or maybe paid one of their other players $900 less. Really, there's a lot of ways for a big club to handle it. Whoops.
He is the only player in history to win the Ballon d'Or four times.
Messi's first Ballon d'Or win in 2009 designated him as the best player in Europe for the year. Beginning in 2010, the award merged with FIFA's World Player of the Year and thus expanded the pool to include players from leagues on other continents. Despite the expanded field, Messi has managed to win each of the last three and is once again a heavy favorite in 2013.
Between his contract and endorsements, he makes about $128,000 per day.
According to Sports Illustrated, 2013's highest-paid American athlete in a team sport is LeBron James, who pulls in about $150,000 a day. Messi is not far behind at $128,000, not bad for a guy who would be unrecognized by about 95% of people on the streets of an American city.
His youth team at Newell's Old Boys in Argentina lost one game in four years.
Even in the days of carpools and halftime orange slices, Messi was a beast. His youth team at Newell's Old Boys were pretty much unbeatable, a dominant force similar to the Knights in The Big Green. We'd love to know what plucky upstart squad was able to overcome Messi et al., although we're guessing they had a bit more skill than the ragtag Big Green.
He refuses to watch video highlights of himself.
Given the obscene number of highlights Messi creates, we're not totally sure how he manages to pull this off. It's nice to know, though, that he doesn't get all caught up in the hype. It probably helps, too, that he already knows he is better than everyone else and doesn't need video to prove it.
His 2005 international debut lasted 47 seconds when he received a red card after coming on as a substitute.
Messi did not get off to a great start with Argentina, collecting his red card 44 seconds into his senior national team debut on a call that was dubious at best. He obviously learned his lesson, though; he has yet to receive another red card since.
He was offered (and declined) a spot on the Spain national team in 2004, preferring to play for Argentina.
Xavi. Iniesta. Fabregas. Messi? These stars all could have been Spain's present midfield if only Messi had accepted his adopted nation's invitation to join their national team in 2004. Instead, his intense loyalty to his home country drove Messi to play for Argentina. The implications of this move are almost too numerous to fathom, but at the very least we'd be talking about this generation of Spain as possibly the greatest national team, ever.
His first contract was signed on a napkin.
Ah, the stink of desperation. Barcelona's sporting director Carles Rexach took one look at Messi and knew he had something special. He was so keen on signing Messi, in fact, that even though he didn't have paper he knew he needed to get his signature right then and there before anyone else got to him. We're going to go ahead and say that was a good call.
Barcelona was so impressed with Messi's footskills that they offered to pay his medical bills and move the family to Spain just to sign him when he was 13.
Most boys who are 13 just hope their inherent awkwardness allows them simply to play soccer without hurting themselves. Messi was obviously not your average teenager; he had barely hit puberty and he was already on his way to play for one of the most powerful clubs in the world. Not bad for someone who probably hadn't even taken algebra.
He is small partly because of a growth hormone deficiency discovered when he was 11.
Even in the world of soccer where many midfielders are undersized, at 5'7" Messi stands out for being especially small. This is due in part to his being diagnosed with Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD) at age 11, a condition that (obviously) stunts a child's growth. Sounds to us like a good excuse to take a whole bunch of HGH.