Lionel Messi was born into a family where everyone was a bit into football. If his peers were forbidden to hang out in the streets and play with the ball all day, this pleasure was available to the future star around the clock.
Lionel Messi was one of four children of worker Jorge Horacio Messi and his wife Celia Maria Cuccittini. Growing up with his older brothers, he spent his childhood in a poor neighborhood of his town, riding bicycles and throwing homemade water bombs at passing buses with friends. At the age of four, grandmother Celia decided that her grandson would become a footballer.
Read Lionel Messi’s full biography on Thevoicemag.ru.
Messi’s father coached the Grandoli football team. And the young footballer took his first steps in the sport there. At the age of eight, he joined Newell’s Old Boys team. During Lionel’s time on the team, she was invincible and was given the unspoken name “87’s Machine”. Messi scored 600 goals while playing for the club.
Messi owes a lot to team doctor Diego Schwarzstein. He monitors the health of the players and discovers hormonal problems in Lionel. It turned out that her body lacks growth hormone. At the time the disease was discovered, Argentina was in an economic crisis and the insurance company had excluded hormone treatment from coverage.
Messi’s growth could have come to a halt if action hadn’t been taken in time. Neither the parents nor the club for which the footballer played could afford treatment. The ancestors of the young footballer being from Catalonia, his father decided to turn to the Barcelona club.
The successes of the young footballer impressed the club’s coaches, but the management was in no hurry to sign the contract. Firstly, there was no precedent for the club to enter into a deal with such young players, and secondly, a huge amount was needed for the treatment. Messi is reportedly costing the club tens of thousands of euros per month. Third, the boy was not ready to live in the club’s hostel and his father demanded that Barcelona pay for his apartment. It was only after the ultimatum presented by the footballer’s agent that the famous contract on a napkin was signed.
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Messi’s age at the time of signing the contract was just 14 years old. The player signed a full contract with the club in March 2001. He received €600,000 per year and rent.
After the issues were sorted out, Dr. Schwarzstein, who diagnosed the disease in time, told the young Lionel: “I don’t know if you will become better than Maradona, but you will certainly be higher.” The prophecy came true and Messi grew a few centimeters taller than the Argentine football legend.
10 facts about Lionel Messi
- He was asked to stay across the country. In 2016, after losing to the Chilean national team in the America’s Cup, Messi announced he was leaving the national team. When he returned to Argentina, dozens of supporters in national team jerseys bearing the number 10 were waiting for him. They saw the team bus leave the airport in the rain chanting: “Messi, don’t leave!” One of the fan posters read: “Messi, I love you more than my mother!” The mayor of Buenos Aires unveiled a statue of a footballer to convince him to stay. In early July 2016, 50,000 fans gathered outside the obelisk in Buenos Aires, chanting “Messi, don’t go!” On social media, the hashtag #NoTeVayasLio (“don’t go, Leo”) has become one of the most cited. In August 2016, the footballer announced that he had changed his mind and was staying.
- He is one of the highest paid players in the world. Since 2008, Lionel Messi has been Barcelona’s highest-paid player. His salary over the next five years rose from 7.8 million euros to 13 million euros. According to France Football, from 2009 to 2014, Lionel was the highest paid player in the world and the first player whose income exceeded 40 million euros. In 2013, he received 41 million euros, and a year later – about 60 million euros per year. In 2018, his earnings exceeded 100 million euros, and a year later he topped the list of the highest paid athletes in the world, according to Forbes, beating Cristiano Ronaldo. The publication estimated his annual income at $127 million.
- For him they found a separate word in Spanish. Leo Messi deserves his name to become a household word. The adjective “inmessionante” appeared in the dictionary of the Santillana publishing house. Its definition is: “an adjective of quality that refers to Lionel Messi, his perfect way of playing football, his ability to surpass himself. It is used to describe the best qualities of a football player. Coach Pep Guardiola says Messi is the only player who runs faster with the ball than without. Lionel himself explains the unusual way of playing football by the conditions in which he grew up. When playing on the street, it was important to keep the ball so it wouldn’t be taken away.
- I arrived in Barcelona thanks to oranges. Messi is a football player whose biography contains many legends. Fabian Soldini, one of the agents who arranged for Lionel to watch over the Barcelona club, recalled that when they met he gave him a kilo of oranges and several tennis balls. He set a condition: he would contact the club if in a week the young footballer learned to juggle oranges and balls with his foot. A week later, Lionel surprises Soldini. He was able to hold an orange with his foot, making 113 strokes, and a tennis ball – 120. Fabian recorded Messi’s exercises on video and sent him to Barcelona, ​​​​after which club representatives made an appointment YOU.
- He was only taken to Barcelona after an ultimatum. Messi, for whom Barcelona became the club in which the footballer received his basic training, arrived in the capital of Catalonia in September 2000. From the first training session, he delighted the coaches by scoring six goals. But they didn’t dare to make a decision without the club’s sporting director, Carles Reshak. After some time, Reshak returned from Australia, and a new test was arranged for the young footballer. He was released on the pitch against 15-year-old footballers. Messi showed himself perfectly, and Reshak assured that the decision was made. Lionel and his father returned to their native country, but received no response. In December 2000, Horacio Gagioli, the athlete’s representative, issued an ultimatum to the club’s representatives: either the contract or the footballer Lionel Messi played for another club. So the contract was signed on a napkin.
- The contract on a napkin ended up in a museum. A week after the contract was signed in the restaurant of the sports club Pompeya, it was certified by a notary and supplemented with a letter of guarantee. Barcelona have agreed to pay Lionel’s treatment and accommodation costs. Horacio Gagioli, one of the participants in the historic event, kept a briefcase in an Andorran bank for a long time. In an interview, he assured that he was offered millions for the artifact. He then donated the relic to the football club museum. Over the following years, Messi made further deals with Barcelona. In 2019, sports journalists had eight documents.
- Footballer Messi is a convicted tax evader. In 2012, after the publication of the Panama Papers, information appeared that Messi had a company in Panama, through which he withdrew funds, hiding from taxes. The footballer was suspected of having underpaid more than 4 million euros in taxes. In August 2013, Messi, citing the fact that he did not understand the intricacies of tax schemes, paid more than 5 million euros. In 2016, he and his father appeared in court. Spanish prosecutors considered the father to be the prime suspect, as he was handling Lionel’s taxes. As a result, the player paid over €2m in fines and received 21 months probation.
- He dedicates his goals to his grandmother. Lionel Messi is a football player known for reacting quite calmly to a scored goal. He raises his fingers to the sky. He therefore thanks his grandmother Celia who, at the age of four, saw the talent of a football player in her grandson, convinced his parents to send him to a local football club and buy him new shoes. She died when her grandson was 10 years old, having prophesied the glory of a great footballer to her.
- Fans call it a goat. Fans of the football player call him Goat, which translates as “goat”. In January 2019, on the team’s Twitter account, Messi’s name was spelled with a goat emoji. The footballer himself did a photo shoot with these animals. The secret is why, when answering the question of who Messi is, fans say the goat is simple. Goat is an abbreviation which means Greatest Of All Time: “the greatest of all time”.
- The press dubbed it the Atomic Chip. The Spanish press nicknamed the footballer La Pulga Atómica, which means “atomic chip”. Due to his small stature, Messiah’s center of gravity is lower than that of other players, allowing him to be more maneuverable and easily maneuver around opponents when attacking. This feature allowed the player to become one of the most successful goalscorers of all time.
Read Lionel Messi’s full biography on Thevoicemag.ru.
Source: The Voice Mag
I am Amanda Gans, a motivated and ambitious professional in the news writing industry. With over five years of experience in this field, I have developed an eye for detail and an ability to craft stories that captivate readers. I currently write for Gossipify, where I specialize in beauty & celebrities news. My passion lies with exploring the world of beauty through writing, interviewing experts and developing articles that are both informative and entertaining.
