Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi

Messi is the first and only player to top-score in four consecutive Champions League campaigns,

Messi helped Argentina win the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup, finishing as both the best player and

 the top scorer (with 6 goals). In 2006, he became the youngest Argentine to play in the FIFA 

World Cup, and won a runners-up medal at the Copa América in 2007, in which he was elected 

young player of the tournament. In 2008, he won his first international honour, an Olympic Gold

 Medal, with the Argentina Olympic football team.SportsPro has rated him as the second-most

 marketable athlete in the world. His playing style and stature have drawn comparisons to

 compatriotDiego Maradona, who himself declared Messi his "successor".

Messi played in Barcelona's junior Infantil B and Cadete B & A teams from 2000 to 2003

 (scoring 37 goals in 30 matches in Cadete A). He was nearly released from the club in

 2003 because of financial constraints, but his youth coaches convinced management to 

keep him (Cesc Fabregas was released during this purge).[25] Season 2003–04 saw him on a 

record[26] five different teams: He started one match in Juvenil B (one goal) and got promoted 

to Juvenil A (14 matches, 21 goals). Later he debuted for FC Barcelona C team (Tercera División) 

on 29 November 2003 and for FC Barcelona B (Segunda División B) on 6 March 2004. He

 played for both teams during the season (10 matches, five goals and five matches, zero goals, respectively)

 Even before these two debuts, Messi made his official debut for the first-team on 16 November 2003 aged 16

 years and 145 days, in a friendly match against Porto.

Less than a year after his start, Frank Rijkaard gave him his league debut against RCD Espanyol on 16

 October 2004 (at 17 years and 114 days), becoming the third-youngest player ever to play for 

Barcelona and youngest club player to play in La Liga, which would be broken by Bojan Krkić in

 September 2007. When he scored his first senior goal for the club against Albacete Balompiéon

 1 May 2005, Messi was 17 years, ten months and seven days old, becoming the youngest to

 ever score in a La Liga game for Barcelona[32] until it was again broken by Bojan Krkić in 2007,

scoring from a Messi assist.[33] Messi said about his ex-coach Rijkaard: "I'll never forget the fact that he launched my

 career, that he had confidence in me while I was only sixteen or seventeen."[34] During the season, Messi played also

 in Barcelona B (Segunda División B) scoring 6 goals in 17 matches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEhnGlFDtA