Lionel Andrés Messi (born 24 June 1987 in Rosario) is an Argentine international footballer who currently plays for FC Barcelona in the Primera División, and for the Argentine national team. He has drawn comparisons to Diego Maradona, and indeed Maradona himself named Messi his "successor".
Consistently strong performances and the occasional goal meant Messi was not starting any more games on the bench. Failure to effectively replace the injured Eto'o and poor defensive displays prevented Barcelona from taking advantage of Messi's showings against Chelsea and Real Madrid. This would later prove critical to their title challenges. On November 12, in the game against Real Zaragoza, Messi suffered a broken metatarsal from tackles, ruling him out for 3 months. Barça carried out his recuperation in native Argentina. During this period there were rumours of interest in the player from Inter Milan. Messi returned to action against Racing Santander on the 11th of February, coming on as a second-half substitute. Rijkaard carefully managed his complete return, gradually increasing playing minutes with each game. One month since his return, on the 10th of March, he played his first full league match since the injury, Real Madrid being the opposition. Once again, El Clásico saw Messi in top form, scoring a hat-trick to earn 10-man Barcelona a 3-3 draw, equalising thrice and with the final goal coming in injury time. In doing so he became the first player since Iván Zamorano (for Real Madrid in the 1994-95 season) and the first Barcelona player since Romario(1993-94 season) to hit a hat-trick in the El Clásico. Messi is also the youngest player ever to have scored in this fixture. The game also marked the beginning of Messi's best spell of form with Barça. He also began finding the net more often, 11 of his 14 league goals for the season coming from the last 13 games. Despite his spirited efforts, Barcelona felt marginally short in its defence of the La Liga title, Real Madrid winning on a better head-to-head record.
Messi shortly before scoring the goal against Getafe.
Messi also proved the 'new Maradona' tag was not all hype, by near-replicating both of Maradona's most famous goals (the two against England in the 1986 World Cup) in the space of the single season. On April 18, 2007, he scored two goals during a Copa del Rey semi-final against Getafe CF, one of which was very similar to Maradona's famous goal against England at the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, known as the Goal of the Century.[32]. The world's sports press exploded with Maradona comparisons, and the Spanish press labelled Messi as "Messidona". He ran about the same distance (62 metres), beat the same number of players (six, including the goalkeeper), scored from a very similar position, and ran towards the corner flag just as Maradona did in Mexico 21 years before. In a press conference after the game, Messi's team-mate Deco said: "There's no other like Leo". Later on, in a crucial league match with Espanyol, Messi scored a goal that drew even more comparisons to Maradona's Hand of God goal.