Lionel Andres Messi was born on June 24, 1987 , in Rosario Argentina. He lives in a house with his father, Jorge, a steel worker, his mother Celia, a part-time sanitation worker, and three other siblings. Leo showed his endless passion for football from a young age, when he played football with his older brothers.
Messi’s grandmother was the first person to guide him towards a football career. His gesture of raising his hands and looking up in prayer every time he scored a goal was a tribute to her. At the age of four, when many other boys and girls were still blowing their noses, Messi joined the local club Grandoli, where he met his first teacher: Salvador Aparicio. Two years later, Messi could start to control the ball around the field while watching his older brother play for the Newell’s Old Boys youth team.
Lionel in Grandoli shirt
The academy director at the time, Carlos Marconi, was so impressed by Messi’s performances that he offered him a place on his brother’s team. “He came out, controlled the ball, dribbled past the whole team and scored. So I brought him up to the senior team and the unthinkable happened again,” Marconi recalled. “Messi was soon signed by Newell’s Old Boys.”
Monica Domine, Messi’s teacher at the time, recalled: “Every time there was a break between training sessions, everyone would start to gather and argue about which team should have Messi. Every weekend, his mother would start counting his titles. But Messi never wanted to brag or mention his achievements.”
Received first trophy in life at Newell’s Old Boys
Talking about her former student’s personality, Ms. Carlos Marconi shared: “At that time, he was very shy, easily embarrassed and very gluttonous. He didn’t have many hobbies, except for chocolate biscuits. So, I lured him that if he scored a goal, I would reward him with a biscuit.” However, after only a few days, Marconi had to change the rules of the game, because Messi scored goals with his feet so easily. This time, he had to score with his head to get a biscuit, 1 goal for 2 chocolate biscuits. He fooled all his opponents, stopped the ball in front of the goal, lifted his foot to kick the ball up high and headed the ball into the net. Then, he ran in front of me, held up 2 fingers and said: “Two”.
Messi scored 500 goals for Newell’s youth team, which was the equivalent of the huge amount of chocolate biscuits he received from his teacher. At the age of 11, football was Messi’s life, a serious dream indeed.
A few years later, Messi seemed to stop growing, and when he went to the hospital for a check-up, Jorge learned that his son had a growth hormone deficiency. Not only that, the cost of treatment for this disease was extremely expensive, beyond the ability of both the family and the Newell’s Old Boys Club to pay.
Messi’s family had some connections with the Catalan club, so they rushed to Barcelona to try their luck. That was in September 2000, when Lionel was only 13 years old. As for what happened later, when Messi arrived in Spain, everyone already knew.
Now, Messi does not need to score goals, change cakes. With his wealth, Messi can eat cakes whenever he wants. However, the truth is not like that, the player born in 1987 cannot eat cakes casually, if he does not want to become fat, enough to decline the current excellent form.
