55 Motivating Lionel Messi Quotes and Facts About Messi

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Inside: A collection of Lionel Messi quotes and facts about Messi, along with resources for learning about his life and accomplishments.

Lionel Messi, soccer legend, is among the greatest athletes of all time.

Smashing record after record, he is the second-highest paid athlete in the world. Messi overcame a childhood growth deficiency to train at FC Barcelona and play 16 seasons there, in addition to playing in 5 World Cups for Argentina.

“For a time, he was simultaneously the best scorer, the best passer, and the best dribbler in the world, and even at age 34, you could still argue he’s all three. He has won everything there is to be won with his club, and done it with verve and style and more magic than our base mortal selves deserve.”
– Slate.com

Despite his unimaginable fame and success, reading Messi’s own words give a special insight into how he sees himself and his beloved sport.

Here’s an index of what’s included in the post. You can click on any link to jump straight to that section:

1. Facts About Messi
2. Lionel Messi Quotes
3. Lionel Mess Lessons for Kids
4. Biography Videos of Lionel Messi

Fast Facts About Lionel Messi

Birthday: June 24, 1987, in Rosario, Argentina

Family: Messi is married to Antonella Roccuzzo and they have have three children: Thiago, Mateo, and Ciro.

Childhood: Messi played soccer from childhood. His first official team was Newell’s Old Boys, a local youth football team.

Health Issues: He suffered from a hormone deficiency and had to receive expensive injections to help him grow. (He is now 5′ 7″.)

FC Barcelona: At 13, Barcelona offered to pay for Messi’s treatment and have him join their renowned youth academy, La Masia. Messi’s family left Argentina and moved to Spain.

After seeing Messi play in just one game, the Barcelona Director Carles Rexach wanted to sign him on the spot and wrote a contract onto a paper napkin. (his father Jorge had threatened to sign elsewhere).

Professional Career: Messi had an informal debut with FC Barcelona at just 16, becoming the youngest player ever to score for them. He played for Barcelona for 16 seasons, and in 2021 signed to play for Paris Saint-Germain.

Goals: As of this post, Lionel Messi has scored over 750 goals, putting him among the best in the world. He is currently the top scorer for a single soccer club, at over 650 goals.

Shot Accuracy: 48% (for Barcelona).

World Cup: Messi has played for Argentina in five World Cups so far, scoring six times.

After Argentina’s second loss to Chile in the 2016 Copa America, he decided to no longer play for the national team. He reversed this decision and played in the 2018 World Cup. However, winning the World Cup has eluded Lionel Messi until now.

Charity Work:

The Leo Messi foundation was established in 2007 to help underprivileged youth.

Leo Messi Awards

FIFA World Player of the Year Award (2008)
Olympic Gold Medal with Argentinian Team (2008 Beijing Olympics)
2010 UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
FIFA Best Men’s Player Award (2019)
6 FIFA Ballon d’Or Awards (Golden Ball Award)
Argentine Footballer of the Year (14 times)
La Liga Best Player (6 times)
6 European Golden Shoes

Records:

First player to score 5 goals in a Champions League Match
Most Goals in a Calendar Year (2012)
Most goals among players of South American National Teams
FC Barcelona All-Time Top Scorer
Top scorer in a La Liga Season
Guinness World Record top scorer for a club

Image Source

10 Messi Motivational Quotes

1. “Every year I try to grow as a player and not get stuck in a rut. I try to improve my game in every way possible.”

– Lionel Messi

2. “You can overcome anything, if and if only you love something enough.”

– Lionel Messi

3. “You have to fight to achieve your dreams. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.”

– Lionel Messi

4. “I start early and I stay late, day after day, year after year, it took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.”

– Lionel Messi

5. “I’m happy with a ball at my feet. My motivation comes from playing the game I love.”

Estoy feliz con un balón en los pies. Mi motivación viene de jugar el juego que amo.

– Lionel Messi

6. “Every year I try to grow as a player and not get stuck in a rut. I try to improve my game in every way possible.”

– Lionel Messi

7. “I try to use pressure to help me in every game. Pressure helps me do things to the best of my ability. I like it. I don’t feel pressure; quite the contrary, because I always enjoy what I’m doing and that’s playing football.”

– Lionel Messi

8. “It takes sacrifice as well as talent.”

– Lionel Messi

9. “The day you think there is no improvements to be made is a sad one for any player.”

El día en que parezca que no hay mejoras por hacer será un día muy triste para cualquier jugador.

– Lionel Messi

10. “My ambition is always to get better and better.”

– Lionel Messi

25 More Lionel Messi Quotes

1. “I have fun like a child in the street. When the day comes when I’m not enjoying it, I will leave football.”

Me divierto cómo un niño en la calle. El día que no disfrute en el campo, voy a dejar el fútbol.

– Lionel Messi

2. “The best decisions aren’t made with your mind, but with your instincts.”

– Lionel Messi

3. “I still have a lot of room for improvement. For example, I want to shoot equally well with both feet.”

Aún tengo mucho espacio para mejorar. Por ejemplo, quiero patear igual con ambos pies.

– Lionel Messi

4. “Many years ago when I first started my career Maradona told me “to enjoy and play as you know”, and that’s stayed with me ever since and is the best advice I’ve been given.”

– Lionel Messi

5. “I don’t need the best hairstyle or the best body. Just give me a ball at my feet and I’ll show you what I can do.”

No necesito el mejor cabello o el mejor cuerpo. Solo denme un balón de fútbol y te mostraré lo que puedo hacer.

– Lionel Messi

6. “Whether it’s a friendly match, or for points, or a final, or any game – I play the same. I’m always trying to be my best, first for my team, for myself, for the fans, and to try and win.”

– Lionel Messi

7. “I like to score goals but I also like to have friends among the people I have played with.”

Me gusta meter goles, pero también tener amigos entre la gente con la que he jugado.

– Lionel Messi

8. “Without the help of my teammates I would be nothing. I wouldn’t win titles, honors, nothing.”

Sin la ayuda de mis compañeros no sería nada de nada. No ganaría títulos, ni premios ni nada.

– Lionel Messi

9. “I am a normal person. I have the same life as any human being. When I finish playing, doing my work, I have my family, my friends, and I live like any other person.”

– Lionel Messi

10. “If I hadn’t had support, I wouldn’t have been able to fulfill my dreams.”

– Lionel Messi

11. “In football as in watchmaking, talent and elegance mean nothing without rigour and precision.”

– Lionel Messi

12. “When I was a kid, my friends would call me to go out with them, but I would stay home because I had practice the next day.”

Cuando era niño, mis amigos me llamaban para salir con ellos, pero me gustaba quedarme en casa porque tenía entrenamiento al día siguiente.

– Lionel Messi

13. “Every time I start a year, I start with the objective of trying to achieve everything, without comparing it to how I’ve done in other seasons.”

– Lionel Messi

14. “Money is not a motivating factor. Money doesn’t thrill me or make me play better because there are benefits to being wealthy. I’m just happy with a ball at my feet. My motivation comes from playing the game I love. If I wasn’t paid to be a professional footballer I would willingly play for nothing.”

– Lionel Messi

15. “Sometimes, you have to accept you can’t win all the time.”

Algunas veces tienes que aceptar que no siempre puedes ganar.

– Lionel Messi

16. “Before if I lost or did something wrong I didn’t talk to anyone for three or four days until it passed. Now, I come home after a game, I see my son, and everything is alright.”

– Lionel Messi

17. “When the year starts the objective is to win it all with the team, personal records are secondary.”

– Lionel Messi

18. “Being a bit famous now gives me the opportunity to help people who really need it, especially children.”

– Lionel Messi

19. “Something deep in my character allows me to take the hits and get on with trying to win.”

– Lionel Messi

20. “I’m always proudest whenever I’ve been part of a trophy-winning team. Lifting a title makes me feel so happy because it’s what I want to do in football: be successful.”

– Lionel Messi

21. “I never had any problems with my height. I was always the smallest kid, at school and in my teams.”

– Lionel Messi

22. “My style of play has always been the same. I never tried to develop a specific style. From very young I just played this way.”

– Lionel Messi

23. “I would pass onto any young player to enjoy your football, play your football as you want to play the game, try and enjoy it and make the most of it.”

– Lionel Messi

24. “I’m lucky to be part of a team who help to make me look good, and they deserve as much of the credit for my success as I do for the hard work we have all put in on the training ground.”

Tengo la suerte de ser parte de un equipo que ayuda a hacer que me vea bien, y ellos merecen mucho del crédito de mi éxito, como yo lo hago por el arduo trabajo que todos hemos puesto en el campo de entrenamiento.

– Lionel Messi

25. “Being a bit famous now gives me the opportunity to help people who really need it, especially children.”

– Lionel Messi

26. “From the age of three, I played every day-morning, afternoon and night.”

– Lionel Messi

27. “I go out and do the best I can in each game, and I don’t think about the fouls other players will commit or whether I might be injured. It only does you harm to worry about those things.”

– Lionel Messi

28. “Give the opponents more than one reason to stare at your feet.”

– Lionel Messi

29. “Being a bit famous now gives me the opportunity to help people who really need it, especially children.”

– Lionel Messi

30. “I think my desire to always get better, to always want more, to always be my top critic, and accepting the good and the bad is a trait that accounts for my success.”

– Lionel Messi

31. “I made sacrifices leaving Argentina, leaving my family to begin a new life. I changed my friends, my people. Everything. But everything I did, I did for soccer, to achieve my dream.”

He hecho sacrificios al dejar Argentina, dejando a mi familia para empezar una nueva vida. He cambiado mis amigos, mi gente. Todo. Pero todo lo que hice, lo hice por el fútbol, para lograr mi sueño.

– Lionel Messi

32. “In football as in watchmaking, talent and elegance mean nothing without rigor and precision.You cannot allow your desire to be a winner to be diminished by achieving success before and I believe there is room for improvement in every sportsman.”

– Lionel Messi

33. “You have got to love the game.”

– Lionel Messi

34. “I want to concentrate on winning things with Barcelona and Argentina. Then if people want to say nice things about me when I have retired, great. Right now, I need to concentrate on being part of a team – not just on me.”

– Lionel Messi

35. “I know how important it is to have a helping hand. In my childhood I had difficult times because of hormonal problems. If I hadn’t had support, I wouldn’t have been able to fulfill my dreams.”

– Lionel Messi

36. “Goals are only important if they win games.”

– Lionel Messi

37. “A lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinions of a sheep.”

– Lionel Messi

38. “I always thought about carrying on training and working, chasing my dream.”

– Lionel Messi

39. “One of the Arsenal players came up to me afterwards and said it had been an honor to be on the same pitch as me. I thought, My God, that is a great thing to say when your team has just lost.”

– Lionel Messi

40. “Motivation is not something I struggle with. I love playing football, I love being in training.”

– Lionel Messi

Printables and links to learn more

Free Resources for students:

Online quiz, reading, listening, and activities on grammar, spelling and vocabulary on Lionel Messi.
Levelled Non-Fiction Reading in English: Lionel Messi Biography
For intermediate-advanced Spanish students, Radioambulante has put out a podcast about Messi’s last World Cup, complete with a transcript.
NPR also has a podcast series in English, with a special focus on themes of immigration, race, class, and colonialism.

You can check out these resources as well, for more: