The FIFA Best Player has again designed and added the “Adidas Golden Ball Trophy” into his enviable soccer archives.

In every generation, there is a great player. After Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and Milla, here comes Lionel Messi. Born on the 24th of June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Lionel Messi began his football career at the age of five with FC Grandoli, a local club in his home town where his father Jorge Horacio Messi, an industrial steel worker was a coach. He later moved to Newells Old Boys another club still in his home city in 2009 where they lost only a single encounter through out the season.

At the age of eleven, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency and transferred to FC Barcelona where he was treated and integrated into the youth team. While in FC Barcelona, Messi went through the different echelons of the club scoring and emerging the best at each stage. From his first official outing in 2004 with the senior team at the age of seventeen to date, the Argentina goal poacher has purified many club records by becoming all-time goal scorer in the history of the club with 318 goals.

At international level, though he is yet to win a major trophy with the Argentinian national team, La Albiceleste, his individual performances do speak. The most outstanding amongst the hundreds of titles and distinctions he has won are, U-20 FIFA World Cup, four consecutive FIFA player of the year trophy, Gold Medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China and Guinness World Records Award for most goals scored in a year.

At the just ended 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, though he failed to lift the trophy as the captain of Argentina, he however took home the Best Player of the Tournament Trophy “Adidas Golden Ball”, for having been so influential in his team’s journey from the group stage to the finals. On June 15, the soccer magician mesmerized at the Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janeiro by scoring and setting up his team mate in a 2 -1 win against Bosnia Herzegovina. He scored a late goal against Iran to put La Albiceleste’s a step into the round of 16. For the last match at the group stage against Nigeria, he netted two goals and set up Angel Di Maria to knock-out Switzerland in a 3 – 2 win which further saw them edged Belgium 1 - 0. At the semi-finals, he stroked one of the penalties that helped the two times World Champion to grab one of the two tickets for the finals.

Coming from a well charged 2013 -2014 club season in Spain characterized by hamstring injury and internal squabbles, the 1, 69m tall outstanding performance at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in /Brazil has been hailed and attributed to his, young age combined with unparallel skill on the ball, masterful play making, his brilliance with both feet and on the air, consistency in the game and experience gathered during the last two editions of the FIFA World Cup competition. “Leo” a father of one smart baby boy called Thiago, owns a charity foundation to help the underprivileged.