Lionel Messi is one of the most dominant athletes in sports.
He has taken over the soccer world and has been recognized as the best player four years in a row.
Argentinian by birth, he has spent half his life in Spain playing for the world famous FC Barcelona.
Lionel Andres Messi was born on June 24, 1987.
"Leo" was born in Rosario, Argentina and is the son of Jorge Horacio Messi, a factory worker, and Celia María Cuccittini, a part-time cleaner.
His father is of Italian descent. His ancestors immigrated to Argentina in the late 19th century.
He has two older brothers, Rodrigo and Matias, and a sister, Maria Sol.
Messi has been playing soccer since he was a little boy.
He played on a team coached by his father and was soon recruited to join the Newell's Old Boys soccer club.
However, he was noticeably smaller than the other boys his age and was eventually diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency.
His parents put him on a regiment of growth hormone injections, but it was very expensive and his parents could not afford to continue treatment.
By the time he was 13, Barcelona offered him a spot in its youth academy.
They would also pay the bills for his growth-hormone treatment, but he would have to move from Argentina to Spain so the Messi family picked up in Argentina and moved to Europe.
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