5 Interesting Facts About Lionel Messi That Will Simply Blow Your Mind.

He has been around for over a decade now, and as he turns 30, one would wonder how he made it this far.

But before you go off singing his praises, here is some trivia which will leave you dumbfounded:

1. At 11, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency which was stopping his normal growth rate. His parents could not afford his treatment, which was 900 USD per month.

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3. He’s an Olympic Gold medalist; Messi won an Olympic Gold Medal along with Argentinian football team, at the 2008 Olympics games in Beijing.

4. Messi was was the first Argentinian ever to be named FIFA World Player of the Year, not Diego Maradona. However, this is due to a technicality because the award was created in 1991, at which point Maradona had begun his downward spiral after he peaked in the 1986 World Cup.

5. Lionel Messi also had the boy’s name and handprints tattooed on his left calf.