Argentina superstar footballer Lionel Messi is one of the best footballers in this game’s history. The talented footballer has piled up many successes and records as time progresses as he is unstoppable on the field for a very long time.
There are many interesting facts and stories about Lionel Messi in his long football career. Here we are only talking about the top five lesser-known facts about him in his football career.
Lionel Messi’s top five lesser-known facts
Childhood clubs before joining Barcelona
Lionel Messi was a legendary Barcelona footballer who was forced to leave the club in the 2021 summer due to the club’s financial crisis. Messi joined Barcelona youth academy in 2000 at the age of around 13-year-old, and he tirelessly served the club for more than two decades.
But before joining the Spanish La Liga club Barcelona, junior Messi served for the clubs Grandoli and Newell’s Old Boys. Just at the age of four-year-old, Messi joined the local club Grandoli FC in Rosario, Argentina. His father coached him during that period.
At the age of six-year-old, Messi joined the Rosario-based Argentine club Newell’s Old Boys.
Lionel Messi declined Spain national team’s offer
As Lionel Messi has dual citizenship from a very early age, Argentine and Spanish, he was eligible to serve any of these two countries.
While Barcelona introduced talented Messi at a very early age, Royal Spanish Football Federation brought an offer for him to serve the Spanish youth national teams. However, he denied that offer.
Soon, in 2004, he made his debut for Argentina U20 national team.
The international debut couldn’t stretch even for a minute
Lionel Messi made his senior international debut on 17th August 2005 against the home team Hungary in an international friendly match. However, he managed to remain on the field for even less than a minute.
Messi first time came on the field for the senior Argentina national football team in the 64th minute of that match. However, just around 47 seconds after his arrival, he was sent off through a direct red card. Definitely, it was very heartbreaking for than 18-year-old footballer.
Messi’s Argentina already has one FIFA trophy
Lionel Messi was very close to winning the FIFA World Cup 2014 in his Argentina jersey, but he had to end that tournament as the runners-up. However, long before that tournament, Messi already celebrated with a FIFA trophy in the Argentina jersey.
Messi was a key member when the Argentina U20 team won the FIFA World Youth Championship in 2005. Messi won both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot awards in that tournament after finishing as the leading goal-scorer of the tournament (six goals).
Lionel Messi won the Gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics
Lionel Messi also has Olympic Gold medal as he was a crucial member of the Argentina U23 team to finish as the champions in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
In that Beijing Olympics, Messi scored twice (joined leading goal-scorer for Argentina) but finished on top of the list of direct involvement in the goals of that tournament (total five = two goals and three assists) along with his teammate Angel Di Maria (two goals and three assists).
