Lionel Messi

Messi joined Barcelona as a 13-year-old and stayed for more than twenty years. With the club he won four Champions League titles (2006, 2009, 2011, 2015) and ten Spanish league titles, scoring 634 goals in 731 appearances by September 2020. In November 2014, within three days, he passed Telmo Zarra's La Liga scoring record and Raúl's Champions League scoring record.

Messi won a record eight Ballons d'Or, in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023. Guinness World Records lists the eight wins as the most for any player, and the 2023 award followed Argentina's World Cup victory.

After losing the 2014 World Cup final and the 2015 and 2016 Copa América finals, Messi led Argentina to the 2021 Copa América, its first title since 1993, in which he was named player of the tournament. In December 2022 Argentina beat France on penalties after a 3-3 draw in the World Cup final, with Messi scoring twice, and in 2024 it won the Copa América again. He played his last match for Argentina, a 3-0 friendly win over Benin, in October 2026 as the national team's record appearance maker and top scorer.

After Argentina's 2-1 opening defeat by Saudi Arabia at the 2022 World Cup, Messi says he let a day pass and then sent a message to the squad: nobody needed to blame anyone, nothing had to change, and winning the next two games would still put them top of the group. Enzo Fernández remembers a team meeting at which they agreed every remaining match was a final. Argentina beat Mexico and Poland.

Acting to reset the squad after a shock defeat is consistent with leadership drive; the account is largely Messi's own, with Fernández confirming the meeting. Leadership Drive

At the end of the Copa América Centenario final in June 2016, in which he missed in the penalty shoot-out against Chile, Messi told Argentine television that the national team was over for him. On 12 August he reversed the decision, saying many things had gone through his mind on the night of the final and that he preferred to help from within rather than criticise from outside.

Returning to the team after a public exit, and then playing on for ten more years, is consistent with persistence, although the episode began with him announcing he was quitting. Persistence

In August 2021 Barcelona announced it could not renew Messi's contract because of La Liga's financial regulations. At a tearful farewell press conference on 8 August he said he had wanted to stay and had not expected to leave. He spent two years at Paris Saint-Germain, then in 2023 chose Inter Miami, saying he had put a return to Barcelona aside rather than leave his future in others' hands again.