Messi was born on 24 June 1987 to the south of Rosario, in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, to parents Jorge Horacio Messi (born 1958), a factory worker, and Celia María Cuccittini, a part-time cleaner^] His paternal family originates from the Italian city of Ancona, where his ancestor, Angelo Messi, emigrated to Argentina in 1883.^] He has two older brothers named Rodrigo and Matías as well as a sister named Maria Sol. At the age of five, Messi started playing football for Grandoli, a local club coached by his father Jorge.In 1995, Messi switched to Newell's Old Boys who were based in his home city Rosario At the age of 11, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency Primera División club River Plate showed interest in Messi's progress, but did not have enough money to pay for treatment for his condition as it cost $900 a month Carles Rexach, the sporting director of FC Barcelona, had been made aware of his talent as Messi had relatives in Lleida, Catalonia, and Messi and his father were able to arrange a trial. Barcelona signed him after watching him play, offering to pay for the medical bills if he was willing to move to Spain.His family moved to Europe and he started in the club's youth teams.^[ He has two cousins also involved in football; Maxi and Emanuel Biancucchi

^{On 21 August 2010, Messi scored a hat-trick in his first start of the season in a 4–0 victory over Sevilla in the Supercopa de España, helping Barcelona secure their first trophy of the season after a 1–3 first leg loss.] He also began his league season with a goal, scoring after just 3 minutes against Racing Santander on 29 August 2010. He then continued his excellent form into the UEFA Champions League group stage match against Panathinaikos where he scored 2 goals, assisted another 2 and also hit the goal-frame on 2 separate occasions. He also missed a penalty, though. Barcelona won the match 5–1.}
On 19 September 2010, Messi suffered an ankle injury due to an ill-advised tackle by Atlético Madrid defender Tomáš Ujfaluši in the 92nd minute of their Round 3 match at the Vicente Calderón Stadium. At first sight it was feared that Messi suffered a broken ankle that could have kept the star player away from the pitch for a minimum of six months but MRI performed the next day in Barcelona showed he suffered a sprain in the internal and external ligaments of his right ankle. Team-mate David Villa stated "the tackle on Messi was brutal" after watching the video of the play and also added that he believed the Atlético defender "didn't go into the tackle to hurt". The incident caused widespread media attention and brought up the debate of equality in protecting all players in the game.
When he recovered he scored in a 1–1 tie against Mallorca. He then scored another brace on the UEFA Champions League against København and helped the team to a 2–0 home win.^] He continued his impressive scoring run with braces against Zaragoza and Sevilla. After a prolific October, he started November scoring on an away 1-1 tie against København and an away 3-1 win against Getafe where he also assisted team-mates David Villa and Pedro Rodríguez.^] In the next fixture against Villareal, he scored an amazing goal combining with Pedro, which gave Barcelona a 2-1 lead. He scored another goal and Barcelona won 3-1. This was the 7th consecutive match in which Messi scored, breaking his own previous record of 6. He also achieved the feat of scoring 50 goals in the calender year of 2010 with the 1st goal, while with the 2nd goal, he achieved the same feat again, this time considering the goals he scored wearing a Barcelona shirt in the year 2010. Against Almería he scored his second hat-trick of the season in an impressive 8-0 away win, the second goal was his 100th La Liga goalHe scored on his 9th game in a row (10th including a friendly against Brazil) on a 3-0 away win against Panathinaikos.His goalscoring run ended on 29 November at El Clásico but Barcelona still managed to win 5-0 with Messi assisting Villa twice.The next match day he scored a brace and gave an assist against Osasuna