Lionel Messi turns 37: A Look Back at his Legendary Career

Born in Rosario, Argentina, the legendary footballer has won eight Ballon d'Or awards, six European Golden Boot and was named the World's best player for record eight times by FIFA.

The Argentine legend made his club debut as a senior at FC Barcelona at the age of 17. He played for the Spanish Club for 17 years in which he won 10 La Liga titles, 4 Champions League titles and 7 Copa del Rey. He is la Liga's all-time top scorer with 474 goals.

Lionel Messi made his international debut in 2005 for Argentina. He is Argentina's top scorer with over 100 goals and also played the maximum number of matches for the national team.

Messi won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship and 2008 Summer Olympics with Argentina but after that he and the national team started facing defeats.

Messi and Argentina lost four finals - 3 Copa America finals (2007, 2015 and 2016) and 2014 FIFA World Cup finals. After the 2016 Copa America finals defeat, Messi announced retirement from International football sending shockwaves in the footballing world. Later, Messi came out of retirement and led the team to the 2018 World Cup.

Messi and Argentina clinched the 2021 Copa America title by defeating Brazil in the finals ending a 28-year wait for a major international trophy since their 1993 Copa America win.

In 2022, Argentina won the Finalissima against the Euro 2020 Champions Italy.

At the International level, Messi has won two Golden Balls at the FIFA World Cups (2014 and 2022) and he was the Best player at the Copa America twice.

Messi won the Laureus World Sports Awards twice in 2020 and 2023.

Finally, the most decorated player in the history of football lifted the most coveted trophy in the sport, the World Cup on December 18, 2022 defeating France.

With the win Lionel Messi completed football...