The Seventeen-Year-Old Who Made His Debut
In 2004, a teenager from Rosario made his competitive debut for Barcelona in La Liga. He was seventeen. Within two years he was winning the FIFPro Young Player of the Year award, and he won it three times in a row, from 2006 to 2008.
Then came the season that changed everything. During 2008-09, his first uninterrupted campaign, he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football history. That year he won the first of four consecutive Ballons d'Or.
By the 2011-12 season he had set the European record for most goals in a single season and had already become Barcelona's all-time top scorer. Most players spend a career chasing one of those milestones. He collected both before turning twenty-five.
Forty-Six Trophies and Counting
Messi is the most decorated player in the history of professional football. Across more than 1,150 career appearances he has won 46 team trophies. At Barcelona alone he took a club-record 34, including 10 La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions Leagues.
The individual haul is just as absurd: eight Ballons d'Or, six European Golden Shoes, and eight separate occasions where FIFA named him the best player in the world.
His records read like typos. Most goals in a calendar year: 91. Most assists in FIFA World Cup history: 12. Most assists in international football: 65. He has scored over 920 senior goals and set up over 420 more, making him the second-highest goalscorer and the single highest assist provider the sport has ever had.
Sixteen Years of Losing Finals
For Argentina, the story was painful for a very long time. He debuted for the senior team in 2005 and won Olympic gold in 2008. Then he took the captaincy in 2011 and led his country to the final of the 2014 World Cup, the 2015 Copa América, and the Copa América Centenario.
Argentina lost all three. In 2016 he announced his retirement from international football, though he returned soon after.
The turn came in 2021 with a Copa América title, then in 2022 with the World Cup itself. He became the first player ever to win the World Cup Golden Ball twice. A third major international title followed at the 2024 Copa América, and at the 2026 World Cup he led Argentina to a second consecutive final before retiring from international football.
Barcelona, Paris, and a League Nobody Expected
Financial difficulties at Barcelona forced him out in 2021. He signed for Paris Saint-Germain and won Ligue 1 twice, then in 2023 he did something few predicted and joined Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.
It worked. He was named league MVP in 2024 and again in 2025, and led Miami to their first MLS Cup victory in 2025.
The wider recognition followed him. Time named him Athlete of the Year in 2023, and in 2025 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from US president Joe Biden. He was also the first team-sport athlete ever to win the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award, which he took in 2020 and 2023.
