Messi: The must-read biography of the World Cup champion, now fully updated (Guillem Balague's Books)

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During the six years he played for Newell's, he scored almost 500 goals as a member of "The Machine of '87", the near-unbeatable youth side named for the year of their birth, and regularly entertained crowds by performing ball tricks during half-time of the first team's home games. In fact, Barca were so desperate to acquire Messi that his first contract was signed on a paper napkin.

After his first training session with the senior squad, Barça's new star player, Ronaldinho, told his teammates that he believed the 16-year-old would become an even better player than himself. Despite being the host country, Argentina left a lot to be desired by losing in the quarterfinals against Uruguay. Where everyone turned to look at him because of his extraordinary abilities while playing, Messi's charm drew the interest of significant and prominent football teams at such a young age.During his first full season (2002–03), he was top scorer with 36 goals in 30 games for the Cadetes A, who won an unprecedented treble of the league and both the Spanish and Catalan cups. Former Barcelona, Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder Fabregas says his first impression of young Messi was that "he was a very small kid, didn't speak, he was very shy". Having shone throughout the Copa America Centenario—held in the US in 2016 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the competition—it looked like Messi’s first piece of silverware with the Argentina national team was inevitable. Though his many awards already speak for themselves, Messi’s stats continue to prove why he made a strong case to be considered the best football player of all time.

After helping Barcelona achieve a historic second treble in 2015, he was honored with his fifth Ballon d’Or trophy.At last, in 2021 and 2022, Argentina and Messi found enough traction to bring home trophies that had long evaded them. Messi had to receive growth-hormone injections every night, but the medical bills quickly became too expensive for the family.