Friday 8 July 2016

Lionel Messi Announced His Retirement From International Football


Lionel Messi:

Lionel Andrés Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe, the third of four children of Jorge Messi, a steel factory manager, and his wife Celia Cuccittini, who worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop. On his father's side, he is of Italian and Spanish heritage, the great-grandson of immigrants from Marche and Catalonia, and on his mother's side, he is of primarily Italian descent Growing up in a tight-knit, football-loving family, "Leo" developed a passion for the sport from an early age, playing constantly with his older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and his cousins, Maximiliano and Emanuel Biancucchi, both of whom became professional footballers. At the age of four years, he joined local club Grandoli, where he was coached by his father, though his earliest influence as a player came from his maternal grandmother, Celia, who accompanied him to training and matches. He was greatly affected by her death, shortly before his eleventh birthday; since then, as a devout Catholic, he has celebrated his goals by looking up and pointing to the sky in tribute of his grandmother.


 Born and raised in central Argentina, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, he relocated to Spain to join Barcelona, who agreed to pay for his medical treatment. After a fast progression through Barcelona's youth academy, Messi made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. Despite being injury-prone during his early career, he established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, finishing 2007 as a finalist for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award, a feat he repeated the following year. His first uninterrupted campaign came in the 2008–09 season, during which he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. At 22 years old, Messi won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award by record voting margins.


Barcelona:

During the 2003–04 season, his fourth with Barcelona, Messi rapidly progressed through the club's ranks, debuting for a record five teams in a single campaign. The 2004–05 season, Messi was a guaranteed starter for the B team, playing 17 games throughout the campaign and scoring on six occasions. Since his debut the previous November, he had not been called up to the first team again, but in October 2004, the senior players asked manager Frank Rijkaard to promote him.  On 24 June 2005, his 18th birthday, Messi signed his first contract as a senior team player. It made him a Barcelona player until 2010, two years less than his previous contract, but his buyout clause increased to €150 million.
Due to issues regarding his legal status in the Spanish Football Federation, Messi missed the start of La Liga, but on 26 September, he acquired Spanish citizenship and became eligible to play.  While Barcelona began a gradual decline, the 19-year-old Messi established himself as one of the best players in the world during the 2006–07 campaign.  Already an idol to the culés, the club's supporters, he scored 17 goals in 36 games across all competitions. After two unsuccessful seasons, Barcelona were in need of an overhaul, leading to the dismissals of Rijkaard and Ronaldinho. Upon the latter's departure, Messi was given the number 10 shirt.  He signed a new contract in July 2008 on an annual salary of €7.8 million, becoming the club's highest-paid player.  Ahead of the new season, a major concern remained his frequent muscular injuries, which had left him side-lined for a total of eight months between 2006 and 2008.  Messi secured their first trophy of the 2010–11 campaign, the Supercopa de España, by scoring a hat-trick in their 4–0 victory over Sevilla, after a first-leg defeat.  Assuming a playmaking role, he was again instrumental in a clásico on 29 November 2010, the first with José Mourinho in charge of Real Madrid, as Barcelona defeated their rivals 5–0. As Messi maintained his goalscoring form into the second half of the season, the year 2012 saw him break several longstanding records. On 7 March, two weeks after scoring four goals in a league fixture against Valencia, he scored five times in a Champions League last 16 round match against Bayer Leverkusen, an unprecedented achievement in the history of the competition.  Barcelona had virtually secured their La Liga title by the start of 2013, eventually equalling Real Madrid's 100-point record of the previous season. However, their performances deteriorated in the second half of the 2012–13 campaign, concurrently with Vilanova's absence due to ill health.

Personal Life:

Since 2008, when he was 20, Messi has been in a relationship with Antonella Roccuzzo, a fellow native of Rosario. He has known Roccuzzo since he was five years old, as she is the cousin of his best friend since childhood, Lucas Scaglia, who is also a football player. After keeping their relationship private for a year, Messi first confirmed their romance in an interview in January 2009, before going public a month later during a carnival in Sitges after the Barcelona–Espanyol derby. He had previously been romantically linked with Argentine models Macarena Lemos and Luciana Salazar.
Messi and Roccuzzo have two sons: Thiago  and Mateo . To celebrate his partner's first pregnancy, Messi placed the ball under his shirt after scoring in Argentina's 4–0 win against Ecuador on 2 June 2012, before confirming the pregnancy in an interview two weeks later.  Thiago was born in Barcelona on 2 November 2012, with Messi attending the birth after being given permission by Barcelona to miss training. He announced his son's arrival on his Facebook page, writing: "Today I am the happiest man in the world, my son was born and thanks to God for this gift!"  Thiago's name and handprints are tattooed on his left calf.  In April 2015, Messi confirmed on Facebook that they were expecting another child. He missed training ahead of a match against Atlético Madrid to attend the birth of his second son, Mateo, on 11 September 2015 in Barcelona.
retirement from international football

Retirement rom International FootBall:

Messi's place in Argentina's Copa América Centenario squad was initially put in jeopardy when he sustained a back injury in a 1–0 friendly win over Honduras in a pre-Copa América warm-up match on 27 May 2016.  It was later reported that he had suffered a deep bruise in his lumbar region, but that he would remain in Martino's squad for the tournament,  although he was later left on the bench in Argentina's 2–1 opening win over defending champions Chile on 6 June due to concerns regarding his fitness.  Although Messi was declared match-fit for his nation's second group match against Panama on 10 June, Martino left him on the bench once again; he replaced Augusto Fernández in the 61st minute and subsequently scored a hat-trick in 19-minutes, also starting the play which led to Agüero's goal, as the match ended in a 5–0 victory, sealing Argentina's place in the quarter-finals of the competition.

On 18 June 2016, in the quarter-final of the Copa América against Venezuela, Messi assisted two goals and scored another in a 4–1 victory, which enabled him to equal Gabriel Batistuta's national record of 54 goals in official international matches. This record was broken three days later when Messi scored in a 4–0 win in the semi-final of the Copa América against hosts the United States; he also assisted two goals during the match as Argentina sealed a place in the final of the competition for a second consecutive year. During the final on 26 June, Messi missed in the penalty shootout as Argentina lost to Chile. After the match, Messi announced his retirement from international football. Sources reported that other Argentine players, Sergio Agüero, Javier Mascherano, Gonzalo Higuaín, Lucas Biglia, Éver Banega, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Ángel Di Maríacould follow their captain in retiring from international football. The Chile coach, Argentine Juan Antonio Pizzi, said after the match: "My generation can’t compare him to Maradona that’s for my generation, because of what Maradona did for Argentine football. But I think the best player ever played today here in the United States. Following the announcement, a campaign began in Argentina by the fans and many big names in football and society for Messi to change his mind about retiring. He was greeted by fans with signs reading "Don't go, Leo" when the team landed in Buenos Aires. Argentina's President Mauricio Macri urged Messi not to quit, stating: "We are lucky, it is one of life's pleasures, it is a gift from God to have the best player in the world in a footballing country like ours... Lionel Messi is the greatest thing we have in Argentina and we must take care of him.The Buenos Aires mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta unveiled a statue of Messi in the capital to convince him reconsider retirement. On social networks, NoTeVayasLeo became a global trending topic, and even a playlist on Spotify. The campaign also continued in the streets and avenues of the Argentine capital, with about 50,000 supporters going to the Obelisco de Buenos Aires on 2 July, using the same slogan.

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