The One Trophy Lionel Messi Has Never Won In 23 Years Of His Career

Ballon d'Or: Long before he was a World Cup winner, Messi was already football's most decorated individual talent, amassing a record eight Ballon d'Or awards across 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023 — a tally no other player in the sport's history has come close to matching. (PC: FC Barcelona)

The Best FIFA Men's Player: That individual brilliance was recognised globally too, with FIFA itself naming him the world's best player on three separate occasions, further cementing a reputation built season after season rather than in a single standout year.
(FIFA)

European Golden Shoe: His consistency in front of goal for club sides was just as relentless, and Messi's record six European Golden Shoes reflect a career spent as the most prolific marksman on the continent, year in and year out.
(La Liga)

FIFA World Cup Golden Ball: Yet it was on the World Cup stage, the one arena that had long eluded him, where his individual class shone brightest — Messi became the only player ever to win the tournament's Golden Ball twice, first as a runner-up in 2014 and then as a champion in 2022. (AP Photo)

FIFA World Cup winner: That 2022 campaign in Qatar finally delivered the trophy his career had been building towards for two decades, as Messi lifted the World Cup itself, ending Argentina's 32-year wait and completing the one chapter his story had always been missing. (Picture Credit: AFP)

Copa América champion: The road to that World Cup had itself begun with redemption closer to home, when Messi ended Argentina's 28-year continental drought by winning the Copa América in 2021, a breakthrough he added to again in 2024. (AFP)

Olympic gold medallist: Rewind further still, and the seeds of that international pedigree were sown early, with a teenage Messi already lifting Olympic gold for Argentina at Beijing 2008, long before the World Cup dream had even taken shape. (FC Barcelona)

Champions League and La Liga: At club level, the trophies piled up in parallel — four Champions League titles and ten La Liga crowns at Barcelona alone — proof that Messi's genius translated into silverware at every level he played, week after week, season after season. (FC Barcelona)

The one that got away — Golden Boot: And yet, for a man who has won almost everything the game has to offer, the World Cup Golden Boot remains conspicuously absent — his best chance came in 2022, when six group-stage and knockout goals plus a brace in the final left him just one strike short of Kylian Mbappé's tournament-topping eight, the closest he has ever come to the one crown that still isn't his.

Will it be this year? Messi is currently tied with France's Kylian Mbappe for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot. Both players are in the semi-finals and can have two potential games to win it. (Picture Credit: AP)