34 years old and been with the soccer club for 21 years????
He started pro soccer at 13 years old?????
That's when Barcelona signed him. He was in Spain by the time he was 14 and was on the main team at 16. He was so good he went through 5 youth divisions (kind of like the minor leagues in baseball) in one season.
Just as an aside because he was mentioned in another post, Messi's idol was Ronaldo. He called him the best forward he had ever seen.