Lionel Messi and the Argentina team had a memorable journey at the 2022 World Cup. With an illustrious career and the highlight being the 2022 World Cup gold trophy, Lionel Messi has officially completed his collection of titles, on par with many world football legends.
Lucrative advertising contracts and praise from fans around the world are what Messi deserves after his journey of playing football at the highest level. However, to reach the pinnacle of his career today, Messi also had to go through a childhood of eating and sleeping with football, as well as countless pains while fighting a congenital disease to nurture his dream with the soccer ball.
Lionel Messi has made history by winning the 2022 World Cup with Argentina.
Billions of people around the world are celebrating the victory of Messi and his teammates.
The Legend’s Fierce Childhood
Messi (born 1987) comes from Rosario – the third largest city in Argentina. Since childhood, Messi was known as a gentle and quiet boy. Messi’s primary school teacher said that he was so shy that he did not dare to talk to the girl sitting behind him.
That childhood friend’s name is Cintia Arellano, now a teacher for poor students in Rosario. Remembering her friend Messi, Cintia Arellano said: “During tests, he often kicked the chair, shoved a piece of paper into my hand so I could write down the answers.”
According to a primary school teacher, Messi has average academic performance but has a special passion for football: “Messi is a quiet kid, but when it comes to football, his attitude is completely different. Messi always has something different when it’s recess and he gets to play football.”
Shy as he is, Messi sometimes becomes a bad student because of his passion for football. He is afraid to go to school, so he finds every excuse to stay home and play football. When he was 13, Messi made his mother extremely angry because he threw stones when she told him to go to school.
Messi had a fierce childhood like no other
After completing primary school, his family moved to Barcelona (Spain) to live, at the invitation of Barcelona Club. Here, Messi both trained at the famous La Masia football academy and studied at Leon XIII School. He was a classmate of two other famous Spanish football players, Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique.
Messi once shared about the first days of moving to the new city: “As soon as I got acquainted with Barcelona, I started practicing football. I did not sleep at La Masia, but would go to Leon XIII school – where all the kids from other cities also studied. I spent every afternoon with those kids. They understood what it felt like to live far away from my family and friends.”
“Despite spending a lot of time with the ball, we still had to get good grades at school. Otherwise, the coaches wouldn’t let us play football in Saturday morning matches,” said Julio Jesus de Dios Moreno, who also studied at La Masia .
Day after day, the childhood of the legendary Lionel Messi was filled with running back and forth between training and school. It can be said that for children who are determined to pursue a professional football career like Lionel Messi, studying and exams are still the most important tasks that need to be completed before dreaming of the World Cup gold trophy.
Messi’s awareness of the importance of education is also reflected in his role as a father. Whenever he moves to a new city during his professional football career, one of the first things Messi does is look for the best educational institutions for his three sons.
Back in Messi’s hometown in Argentina, the sports field where Messi played with the neighborhood boys and scored his first goal has become a popular spot. Artists have painted scenes from Messi’s life on the walls around it.
This house is located on Estado de Israel, number 525, on the outskirts of Rosario, and is still owned by the Messi family, but the family has moved to a more upscale area in the city. Messi has kept everything in the house intact, installed security cameras, and has someone come to clean it every day.
Messi’s family’s childhood home has become a popular tourist destination.
Life-Changing Decision at 13
The childhood of the “legend” Lionel Messi was not as peaceful as that of other children. His family soon discovered that he had a growth hormone disorder, which caused Messi’s body to develop more slowly than his friends. From the age of 8, Messi began to undergo a series of hormone injections to supplement the missing substances in his body. Messi’s family was not well off, while the monthly treatment cost for their son was quite expensive.
As a child, Messi suffered a lot of pain due to a congenital disease.
It was only later that Newell’s Old Boys – the first team Messi played for as a child – offered to help pay for his family’s treatment. This relieved the family of a financial burden.
And in 2001, FC Barcelona appeared and offered Messi to become a member of the team. The club not only agreed to bring the whole family to Barcelona (Spain), but also paid for all of Messi’s medical treatment. Thanks to that, Messi could not only concentrate on playing football with his family by his side, but his height also increased significantly.
However, the Messi family’s new life in Spain was not peaceful. Although they loved their son very much, they could not adapt to life in Barcelona and so the family moved back to their hometown in Argentina.
At that time, only Jorge Messi and his 13-year-old son Messi were left in Barcelona. Jorge Messi himself was also disoriented. He asked Messi: “What should we do now?” . Although he was still young, Messi realized that the opportunity to play football in Barcelona could completely change his life. Therefore, he firmly told his father: “I want to stay.”
His efforts to rise above all circumstances have helped Messi reach the pinnacle of football. A few years later, FC Barcelona has proven that their decision to help Messi’s family was completely worth it.
At the age of 16, Messi made his debut for the first team at FC Barcelona and scored his first goal shortly after. While playing for Barcelona, Messi not only became a “legend” with his brilliant performance but also brought many lucrative contracts to the Spanish team.
Now at the age of 36, he has quickly become one of the best players in the world, achieving all the records of the king sport. And there is no need to say much about the name Lionel Messi when just the World Cup championship trophy has made the whole world talk about him a lot today and forever.
