Paulo Dybala

Paulo Bruno Exequiel Dybala (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpaulo ðiˈβala]; born 15 November 1993) is an Argentine footballer who plays as a forward for Italian club Juventus and the Argentina national team.

Due to his creative style of play, pace, talent, technique, and eye for goal, he has been nicknamed La Joya (The Jewel, in Spanish).

Early life

His grandfather, Bolesław Dybała, was from the village of Kraśniów in Poland. His family also has Italian origins through a maternal grandmother from the Province of Naples.

Club career

Instituto de Córdoba

Nicknamed La Joya or El pibe de la pensión, Dybala made his professional debut in the Primera B Nacional (Argentine second division) with his hometown club Instituto Atlético Central Córdoba, when he was 17 years old. In total he played 40 games with the club, scoring 17 goals. He was the youngest to score a goal beating the record of Mario Kempes, Dybala was also the first to play 38 consecutive games in a professional league in the country by beating again Kempes, and he was also the first to score two hat-tricks in a season and has scored in six consecutive games, surpassing the previous record of four games.

Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi]; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world and rated by many in the sport as the greatest of all time, Messi is the only football player in history to win the FIFA Ballon d'Or five times, four of which he won consecutively, and the first player to win three European Golden Shoes. With Barcelona he has won seven La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles, as well as three Copa del Rey titles. A prolific goalscorer, Messi holds the records for most goals scored in La Liga (299), a La Liga season (50), a calendar year (91), a Champions League match (five), and most Champions League seasons (five).

Born and raised in central Argentina, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, he relocated to Spain to join Barcelona, who agreed to pay for his medical treatment. After a fast progression through Barcelona's youth academy, Messi made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. Despite being injury-prone during his early career, he established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, finishing 2007 as a finalist for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award, a feat he repeated the following year. His first uninterrupted campaign came in the 2008–09 season, during which he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. At 22 years old, Messi won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award by record voting margins.