The kid won’t play football with his big brothers

Messi’s football story began on the streets of Rosario, with his avid fan grandmother convincing the coach to let him play with an older team.

Grandmother Celia is Messi’s first “representative”.

“A team of big boys was short and my grandmother, who knew the coach, told him to choose me,” Messi said. “‘No, how can that be, look at the boy, you’re not losing your mind, they’ll hurt him,’ but she still said, ‘let him in, let him kick. And of course, I can Get on the field, do a few things and from there…

“Buy him some shoes, I’ll take him to practice next week. She told him and that was the beginning of it all.”

However, even before his grandmother did an excellent job as an agent, Messi played with the ball, with great influence from his family.

“When I was 4 or 5 years old, I was playing with a ball, as soon as I could walk. I had cousins and we always played together. From a young age, football was always at my feet and at the age of 4 , I started playing in clubs, and on the streets at any time.”

Going to Barcelona, difficulties and homesickness

A few years later, there was a call from Barcelona and Messi’s relationship with the Catalan club began with excitement but difficulties for a young boy.

Messi arrived at Barcelona in 2002.

“Honestly, making the decision was very difficult, even though it was very quick. I didn’t hesitate, nor did I think too much, but it was difficult because when I arrived I couldn’t compete because of some paperwork issues, then when I started I got injured again.

I spent almost a year without competing. Still training but it’s not the same as competing. After that, I was lucky that from there everything happened very quickly.”

After a difficult start, things stabilized but for a young man he lived so far away from his family that returning home from visits was a bittersweet experience.

“I always cry every time I return to Rosario, wanting to stay and not. I want to go to Barcelona to continue, but at the same time it’s hard to leave everything behind.

I’ve lost a lot of friends, communication is difficult… Nowadays, any 13 or 14 year old kid has a phone but back then it wasn’t like that, I lost contact with many people because of information. and distance”.

The mask

Messi progressed quickly at La Masia, reaching the first team at a young age. But when he was playing youth football, something happened to him. After breaking his cheekbone, Messi had to use Carles Puyol’s protective mask to play in the Copa Catalunya final. Messi was only 14 or 15 years old at the time, it was still too big.

Essi reused the mask that his senior Carles Puyol used

“I practiced with it a few times, competed for 5 minutes but couldn’t stand it, it was too big for me to stay on my face.

I took it off and threw it away, kicked it around for a while, I think I scored two goals and we won 3-0. And they pulled me out after 30 minutes.”

Messi also recalls his father’s anger at the coaches for letting him play without a mask, but at that time, he just wanted to play football without caring about the risks.

Kids and normal life

Nearly two decades later, the Blaugrana star now has a family and children with whom he spends a lot of time.

“I’m lucky to be with the kids most of the day. I can take them to school, pick them up, take them to play soccer and other activities and I love that. What I enjoy most is waking up , have breakfast with them… even though sometimes you want to be mad about them,” he added and laughed.

The Argentine star spends a lot of time with his family.

With three kids, Messi’s family doesn’t have much time to go out, but he is happy to meet and become friends with other parents. That allows him to live a normal life.

As a global star, the most difficult thing for Messi is going out to play. Finding quiet is hard work, sometimes even crazy.

Messi’s popularity also led to the two boys Thiago and Mateo getting a lot of attention, with the younger one being shy and not liking to be recognized, and the younger one not caring.

In addition to issues such as the regret that the youth did not ask to exchange shirts with big stars like Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos or decided not to grow a beard since the 2016 Copa America, when Barca did not win the Liga title this season and was disappointed in the Champions League. Champions League, Messi said that, in a difficult period for the club, with many young players and new factors, winning the King’s Cup is a remarkable achievement.