Book Review: Who Is Lionel Messi?

 Who Is Lionel Messi by James Buckley Jr., illustrated by Manuel Gutierrez, Penguin Workshop, New York, 2024.

Lionel Messi is a soccer player, perhaps the best in the world; perhaps the best of all time.  This book was written before the World Cup this year, so does not tell the story of Argentina being the runner up, but it does tell the story of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.  

Messi was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1987.  He has been playing soccer since he was three and got his first soccer ball.  He started playing organized soccer at age four; and he was good, a goal scorer and dribbler.    When he was seven he began playing for Newell's Junior teams.  His father and. brothers had played for Newell.  Messi was still a goal scorer and won every game.  Messi was small due to lack of a growth hormone.  Shots corrected this but were expensive.  He was invited to try out for Futbol Club Barcelona.  By 2001 Messi was playing in Spain.  Most of his family went.  Messi quickly moved through Barcelon's teams, under 16 then under 19.  Everyone moved back to Argentina except Lionel and his father.  This was a hard time missing his mother.  He played his first game in the top division for Barcelona at age 17, the second youngest player to do so.  

He played in the U20 World Cup at age 18 and Argentina won.  He also played his first National Team match, a friendly against Hungary.  Messi came in as a substitute but was red carded when he hit another layer in the throat.  

He retured to Argentina for a time to support a girlfriend who had lost a friend in an automobile accident.  Atonela would eventually become his wife.  They have three children.  At age 20 he started donating some of his money through the Leo Messi foundation.  Barcelona had a near perfect season in 2008-2009.  They won the FIFA Club World Cup and several other major competitions.  Messi won the prize as best soccer player in the world.  Messi started competing in the World Cup in 2006.  Each year they came up short until 2022 in Qatar when they won.  At this last World Cup he broke the record for mowt World Cup goals.  

In 2021 due to the rules of La Liga he had to change teams.  He then played in France on a team with Kylian Mbappé also on the team.  He played against France and Mbappé in the finals of the 2022 World Cup.  More recently he has joined Major League Soccer with the Inter Miami FC team.  They had been flounder

ing but with Messi's signing thay have become one of the better teams in MLS.