The legendary Argentine footballer, striker, captain of the Spanish club "Barcelona" - Lionel Messi. He is recognized as one of the best footballers of our time, as well as one of the best players in the world.
Football career
Lionel was born on June 24, 1987 in the small Argentine town of Rosario. The family was large, parents had no time to pay enough attention to their offspring. Therefore, the grandmother was engaged in the upbringing of the future football player, who brought him to the Grandoli football club.
Selli's grandmother was firmly convinced that five-year-old Lionel had a certain gift for the game, that a great future awaited him. She was not mistaken, and Messi devoted all his goals to his beloved relative.
At school, Lionel did well, but most of all he was fascinated by football, to which he gave all his free time. At the age of 8, the young footballer played in the professional team of the Newells Old Boys. It was then that he received his first award: the Peruvian Friendship Cup.
At the age of 11, Lionel Messi became seriously ill. He was found to have a growth hormone deficiency, which made him very short in comparison with other peers. The family was forced to purchase injections of drugs for $ 900 every month in order to restore hormonal function in the young man. It was because of the treatment that the River Plate club refused to buy such a promising player.
But the representatives of the Barcelona football club were not afraid of the health problems that Lionel Messi had. They saw in the boy remarkable perseverance, fortitude, will to win, realizing that such a player will pay off the investment in himself several times over. Thus, at the age of 13, Lionel leaves for Barcelona to become a player in the team of the same name. The cost of the boy's treatment was covered by the director of the Barcelona club Carles Rechak.
In 2000, Messi moved to Spain to join the youth squad of Catalan Barcelona. In the first match, the young man scored 4 goals, and in 13 games of the season there were already 37 of them.
Lionel Messi's career at Barcelona was on the upswing. The footballer received awards every year: the best player, the author of the best goal, etc. In 2006, he began to demonstrate simply unrealistic results. And the best performance was recorded by the player in 2012, it was then that he was able to score 50 swords in a season.
It was for his victories that Lionel Messi received a very prestigious award: the Ballon d'Or. Many times the legendary footballer tried to entice other clubs, but he remained loyal to Barcelona.
Argentina squad
In June 2004, Lionel Messi made his debut for the Argentine national team. In this team, the footballer's results are not so impressive. Messi's game can be called unstable, he either takes the team to the top, then gets a red card.
Lionel has often made statements that he wants to leave the Argentina national team, but in 2018 he entered the field with it at the FIFA World Cup. But, despite all the efforts of the player in the 1/8 finals, the whole team went home. The journalists noticed that the mood of all the players in the national team depended strictly on the emotional state of Messi. Most likely, this affected the overall game.
Income
The Barcelona legend now has € 111 million to his credit. In 2018, Lionel Messi was named the world's highest paid football player for the first time and appeared on the pages of the Forbes magazine list.
In 2004, the player's salary was 1,500 euros per week, and his income jumped to 10,000 euros per week after his first friendly match. In 2005, the Barcelona club extended the contract with Lionel Messi for 5 years, while his salary is already 1.2 million euros per year. This is the minimum amount without team and individual bonuses for games.
After signing the contract, Messi played so enchanting that the bosses of the club decided to sign a new agreement with him for a period of 7 years, and the reward was doubled. After a hat-trick in 2007, the player's salary was doubled again.
Then there was some lull, even rumors began to circulate that Barcelona wanted to sell the legendary player for 250 million euros. This state of affairs greatly exacerbated the emotional state of Lionel Messi. Fortunately, his father and part-time representative was able to negotiate a contract extension with Barcelona.
In May 2014, a new contract was signed for an annual € 20 million. And for those clubs that were considering the option of acquiring a player, the amount was already set at 300 million euros. Lionel Messi signed the last contract with Barcelona in November 2017, his annual salary is now 30 million euros, this is an amount without bonuses.
Not small income from a football player and from promotions. Already in 2010, Lionel Messi signed an agreement with Adidas, receiving from the company from 10 to 20 million dollars a year. The star not only starred in commercials, but also always appeared on the field in the clothes of this company. Now the contract of the footballer and the Adidas brand is for life.
Rumor has it that the firm will have to shell out $ 5-8 million for an advertising campaign featuring Lionel Messi. The footballer has already advertised Pepsi, Leys chips, Alfa-Bank and other brands. Messi's cumulative advertising revenue is around $ 25 million a year.
Messi, like a good entrepreneur, invests his income in a profitable business. In 2017, he acquired a 4-star hotel in Sitges, Catalan, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. This purchase cost Lionel 30 million euros. The business was so successful that in April 2018, Messi acquired a second hotel complex, this time in Ibiza.
Lionel Messi has huge plans for the development of his hotel business, and he also wants to open his own theme park. The footballer understands that this will soon become the main source of his income, because a career in sports can unexpectedly come to an end.
