Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi
Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club FC Barcelona. Often considered the best player in the world and rated by many in the sport as the greatest of all time, Messi is the only football player in history to win five FIFA Ballons d'Or, four of which he won consecutively, and the first player to win three European Golden Shoes. With Barcelona he has won eight...
NationalityArgentinian
ProfessionSoccer Player
Date of Birth24 June 1987
CitySanta Fe, Argentina
We cannot allow that to happen again. I am sure Argentina has a very strong team and the players have the will to win the title. ... We would like to avoid playing against one of those strong teams in the first round.
The Barcelona youth program is one of the best in the world. As a kid, they teach you not to play to win, but to grow in ability as a player.
Sometimes you have to accept you can't win all the time.
I want to concentrate on winning things with Barcelona and Argentina. Then if people want to say nice things about me when I have retired, great. Right now, I need to concentrate on being part of a team - not just on me.
When the year starts the objective is to win it all with the team, personal records are secondary.
Goals are only important if they win games
Something deep in my character allows me to take the hits and get on with trying to win.
I prefer to win titles with the team ahead of individual awards or scoring more goals than anyone else. I'm more worried about being a good person than being the best football player in the world. When all this is over, what are you left with? When I retire, I hope I am remembered for being a decent guy.
Ronaldinho was responsible for the change in Barça. It was a bad time and the change that came about with his arrival was amazing. In the first year, he didn't win anything but people fell in love with him. Then the trophies started coming and he made all those people happy. Barça should always be grateful for everything he did.
There are more important things in life than winning or losing a game.
Whether it's a friendly match, or for points, or a final, or any game - I play the same. I'm always trying to be my best, first for my team, for myself, for the fans, and to try and win.
We can't be overconfident. It happened to us when we were leading 2-1 in last year's game. Chelsea has players who can score two goals at any moment and we have to realize we have achieved nothing yet.
It was obvious from his first attack on me that he went in to kick me on the knee. It meant the second time he came in really hard, he was going over the ball with the intention of hurting me. That was why I jumped and that is the only reason he did not do real damage.
I want to avoid comparisons because for me there has never been anyone quite like him.