Football: On Lionel Messi's 35th birthday, Argentinian legend's stats that make him the football GOAT

Born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 24, 1987, Lionel Messi joined the Spanish giants FC Barcelona when he was 13 years old and has become one of the most successful footballers.

The Argentine sets new standards. Some may be untouchable. Before starting a goal-scoring spree, he was diagnosed with a potentially career-threatening condition.

The 35-year-old made his debut for Barcelona in a friendly against FC Porto on November 16, 2003. His official debut was against Espanyol on October 16, 2004.

The little magician has set many records and is known as one of the best players in the world. At 17, Messi, a graduate of Barcelona's famed youth academy La Masia, made his senior team debut.

Argentina's legend Diego Maradona hails Lionel Messi as his successor. He led Argentina to the FIFA 2014 World Cup finals and won the Copa America 2021, ending his long wait for a national title.

Some of Lionel Messi's most incredible stats on his 35th birthday

Lionel Messi won the Ballon d'Or trophy seven times. This award is given to the best player of a calendar year.

After a treble-winning year with Barcelona, he won his first Ballon d'Or trophy in 2009. It was also the first of four consecutive Ballon d'Or trophies he received in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

He won his fifth title in 2015 in the second treble of his career, with the help of the legendary MSN trio (Messi, Suarez, Neymar).

It took him until 2019 to lift his sixth Ballon d'Or trophy, and he won his seventh in 2021 after he single-handedly led a poor Barcelona side to a double.

Top-scorer in the club and the country

In 724 games for Barcelona, Messi has scored 630 goals, an average of 0.87 goals per game. This makes him the top scorer for the Spanish giants. Furthermore, he has scored the most goals in La Liga, Spain's top-tier league, with 443 goals.

Messi leads the all-time goal scorers for the Argentina national team, having scored 86 goals. Scored six goals at the FIFA World Cup and nine at the Copa America.

The highest number of goals in a year

In 2012, he scored a remarkable 91 goals in only 69 matches. Guinness World Records has ranked this as the record for the most goals by an individual player in one calendar year. Of the 91 goals, scored 79 in Barcelona colours, and 12 were with the national team.

Lionel Messi is the only player who has won four significant accolades in a single season. This feat included the Ballon d'Or, FIFA World Player, the Pichichi Trophy, and the Golden Boot award; he achieved this feat during his 2009-10 sensational season, where he won the treble with Barcelona.

Lionel Messi is a complete player because his game is more than scoring goals. He is a top-notch playmaker, and his deep-routed tiki-taka style has allowed him to rack up 368 assists over his career, which is the most ever by any player.