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The Story of Lionel Messi

Early life

Lionel Messi, also named La Pulga, was born on the 24^th day of June 1987 to his mother, Celia Maria Cuccitini and father, Jorge Horacio Messi, in the city of Rosario, Argentina. Messi is the third of four children born to his Mom, who once worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop in Argentina, and his Dad, a steel factory manager. As a child he usually played soccer with his two elder brothers, Rodrigo and Matias Messi. He also had a younger sister name Maria Sol Messi. Lionel Messi’s grannies Antonio, Celia-Olivera, Rosa Maria, Eusebio played a major role in Messi’s football life.

Few years after Messi was born, the South American country was at the brink of economic collapse due to the Argentina’s inability to pay its debt. This caused hyperinflation, and riots everywhere. Messi’s family were among the victims of this economic crisis which made Jorge and Celia struggle with their work.

Introduced into Football World

The one and only supporter of Messi at his age of 4 was his grandmother, Celia Olivera Cuccitini, when she saw the makings of the football star within him. She found an unrivalled destiny in the little boy. His two elder brothers taught him how to kick the ball.

In order to full the little boy’s dream, Celia took him to his first football training session at Grandoli local football club. She even motivated her son with the words “LIONEL, ONE DAY YOU WILL BE THE BEST FOOTBALLER IN THE WORLD.”.

Then came The Grandoli Test. Messi’s entire household was there to watch Rodrigo and Matias feature in the game, but not Lionel Messi. Grandoli’s coach Salvador Aparicio noticed he was a player short and hence included Messi in his squad to complete the team. From that moment of brilliance, Messi became part of Salvador’s team and helped the team in winning his first ever trophy.

From that day, coach Aparicio promised to take Messi to bigger academies so he can make a legend out of the local kid. Mess’s dad volunteered to become his trainer. Messi then joined his lifelong supporter Rosario club, Newell’s Old Boys. Lately after joining the club, his grandmother – the true believer in Messi, died. Since then Messi up to this day has been celebrating his goals by looking up and pointing to the sky, in tribute to his grandmother.

Lionel Messi, a member of set of boys called “The machine of `87”, scored 500 goals for Newell’s Old Boys before he was abandoned by them. Newell broke their promise to cover the cost of Messi growth hormone treatment. The day was saved by his grandparents (from father’s side) who lived in Catalonia and found the source for his treatment, FC BARCELONA.

At the age of 13, FC Barcelona offered Messi the chance to have his medical bills covered by the club. At first, Barcelona board of directors refused to sign him due to the rules that didn’t permit European clubs to sign foreign players of Leo’s age. But on 14^th December 2000, Newell’s Old Boys issued an ultimatum for Barcelona to prove their commitment on Messi or else stand the chance to lose him. This lead to FC Barca’s team director Charly Rexach to rush to meet the deadline and with no paper in hand, he signed Lionel Messi’s contract on a napkin.

Then begin the era of world’s best footballer.

Awards

Leo announced his name to the world in the year 2005 during a FIFA Youth Championship where he finished the tournament by winning three spectacular awards, The Golden Ball, The Golden Shoe, and an Olympic Gold medal. In the same year, he led the Argentina team to the title in the under 20 World Cup.

At the age of 16, he was the youngest player to ever score a goal. In 2009, Messi became a successful football star destroying big teams single handedly. It was the year where his team won the Champions League, La Liga and Spanish Cup titles making o Barcelona one of the few team to win the Treble. Messi was also awarded his first Ballon D’Or award or “World Player of the Year” honor.

In 2011, Messi again led Barcelona to win the second treble, making them the only club in history to win 2 trebles.

In 2014, Messi lead to Argentina to the finals of World Cup 2014, where they lost to Germany by 1 goal.

In 2019, Messi won the 6^th Ballon D’Or making him the first player in the history of football to have won 6 Ballon D'Or awards.

These are only the major achievements that no one could dream of. There are many other numerous achievements and records broken Messi which are seemingly impossible to be broken now.

Difficulties

Endocrinologist Diego Schwarztein advised the Newell's Old Boys medical team and one day received a call: there was a boy in the youth ranks who was causing concern because all of his team-mates were growing except for him. Lionel Messi, a star with the ball and an adolescent refusing to enter puberty, had found his kryptonite. The tests went well and the injections began, to feed his body the hormones that on their own were not helping him grow. 

Somehow this was not the worst part in his career. The worst thing that happened to him was leaving his family, leaving his neighborhood during his transfer to Barcelona. Despite being transferred, he was unable to play for some time due to the problem in the contract.