Earlyface

From Carlos Gardel and Eva Peron to Maradona
and Lionel Messi
“He (Lionel Messi) is the best player in the world by
some distance”, Arsne Wenger, the coach of the
F.C. Arsenal, has proclaimed of the five-foot-eight-
inch tall, Argentine-born football star, “He’s (like) a
PlayStation. He can take advantage of every mistake
we make”.
As elsewhere in Latin America, much of Argentina’s
sporting history has been dominated by football —
known simply as soccer in the States– since the
1920s. After Argentina’s military strongman Jorge
Rafael Videla Redondo, a hated tyrant, declared top
priority to win the FIFA Global Cup in the late
1970s, the nation’s footballers invaded the world
with a host of global awards and trophies. On June
25, 1978, Mario Kempes and his fellow players
lifted the winner’s Cup on home soil upon scoring
an overwhelming win against a Peruvian team led
by an Argentine-born goalkeeper (6-0) in the semis.
Within a year, in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, the
South American contingent,spearheaded by Diego
Armando Maradona, was regarded as the best
junior team on the Planet at the expense of the
former Soviet Union/USSR. Shortly thereafter,
Argentina was one of the “huge favorites” in the
men’s football tournament prior to joining the U.S.-
led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. Three
years on, its national side came close to winning
the IV Junior Global Championship.
On June 29, 1986, Los Celestes, as the national
squad is known around the globe, placed first in
the FIFA Cup in the United Mexican States; One of
the most memorable matches ever seen in World
Cup history was played there as Argentina beat
England–Maradona and his team-mates tried to
win on the field what their countrymen had lost in
the 1982 Anglo-Argentine Falklands War. Already,
in 1990, once again Maradona put Argentina in the
final of the FIFA Cup on Italian soil. In the space of
six years, from 1995 through 2005, the national
contingent was four-time winner of the Under-20
World tournament. It was around this time that
name Messi appeared on the scene.
Argentine-born Messi,who is dubbed ” the Flea”, is
a strong and powerful forward who plays both in
FC Barcelona (since 2003) and Argentina’s national
squad (2006).Curiously, he has spent his entire
career in Spanish club (nearly 10 years), working in
a variety of teams (Under-15, U-17, U-19, as well as
other squads). Messi has become almost
indispensable to his club (known popularly as
“Barca”)-he is the backbone of Barcelona’s 4-3-3
formation. Nevertheless, he loves to play football
with the Argentine side, having refused to be a
member of the Spanish national team despite his
strong links to European nation. As well as being
an Argentine-born person, Messi, of Italian
background, is a Spaniard citizen since the
mid-2000s. From 2005 through 2011, Messi
collected over seventy individual awards. Indeed,
his success as a sportsman is largely due to his
persistence and hard discipline. According to Paris-
based magazine France Football, Messi is the
world’s top paid footballer. Besides all that, the
center forward —a soccer gold medalist in the
2008 Olympics– has gained international stature as
a champion for the rights of children.
Although Lionel Andres Messi, known occasionally
as “the ghost center forward”,is considered one of
the greatest soccer players to have never won a
FIFA World Cup (together with Ferenc Puskas from
Hungary and Liberia’s George Weah), he is already
one of the male athletes most famous on the global
sporting map. In the Western Hemisphere, Messi,
who is often compared to Maradona, has inspired
thousands of young would-be footballers to follow
their dreams,especially in poverty-stricken regions.
But not only that, because of him more people
know about Argentina –which has a long-standing
history of man-made disasters— than ever before.
On his home soil, his status is only comparable to
three national celebrities: Argentina’s postwar First
Lady Eva Perón -made famous by Andrew Lloyd
Webber’s musical Evita— Maradona, and Carlos
Gardel, nicknamed the “songbird of Buenos Aires”
and who helped popularize tango around the
world.
Lionel Messi: A Rough Diamond
Lionel Messi’s life changed forever when he was
plucked out of the Spanish-speaking republic of
Argentina by a talent scout to play for Barca, which
is often referred to as one of the top clubs around
the globe- it holds hundreds of millions of soccer
fans outside its own borders, from Bangladesh and
Guinea-Bissau to San Marino and the Feroe
islands.
You cannot become a top sportsman (woman) if
you don’t achieve notable results, if you are not a
hard worker, and before all, if you are not able to
overcome the obstacles in your life. In fact, Lionel
Messi knows firsthand about this. Like his fellow
Argentine Maradona, Messi is small –who stands 5
feet 8 inches tall– for the position of forward, but
he overcame this with a prodigious ability and
exceptional intelligence on the filed, earning the
nickname “Flea”. Over his athletic career, he also
has defeated other hurdles: numerous injuries,
especially during Rikjaard’s direction. Throughout
his years as a boy, his country underwent one of
the deepest recessions in the Americas. But this
wasn’t all. Because of an illness, he almost gave up
the sport. By 2008, there were troubles to send
Messi to the Summer Games due to his dual
citizenship and status as a professional footballer
in Barcelona. Against club wishes, however,
Messi,the greatest professional footballer of all
time, arrived at Beijing with the Argentine squad
(as a defending champion). In the Olympic arena,
soon afterwards, he and his colleagues were
champions, making history in the People’s Republic
of China. Currently, Barcelona won’t sell Messi for
anything in the world.
Messi bases his success on being able to offer a
play based on pa$$ion, determination, hard
discipline, and an exceptional ability. No player can
ever be categorized as invincible in football world,
but Messi is probably the most talented man ever
to carry a ball. In all his matches, Messi plays as if
were a game for the FIFA World Championship.
Rosario: The Birth Of A Footballer
Born in the Argentinian city of Rosario (Santa Fe
Province), on June 24 1987 – a year after his
country captured the FIFA World Tournament in
the Mexican metropolis— Messi is one of the
fourth children born to Jorge Horacio Messi and
his wife, the former Celia Mara Cucittini. Curiously,
he is one of the four most prominent individuals
from Rosario, alongside Libertad Lamarque
(performer), Valeria Mazza (supermodel),and César
Luis Menotti (football coach).
His father had been a factory steel worker. In fact,
Messi inherited his football genes from his father,
who was coach during a brief period. Meanwhile,
Messi’s mother is an admirer of notable people
and wanted his children to have famous names.
Celia Mara named his son Lionel after her favorite
idol Lionel Richie, a Grammy-winning singer/
songwriter whose pop chart-topping hits in the
1980s included “Truly”, “You Are”, and “All Night
Long”.
Like most of Argentina’s sportsmen as Octavio
Dazzan (cycling), David Nalbandian (tennis), and
Manu Ginibili (basketball), Lionel reflects the Italian
roots of his motherland. His father’s family is from
Italy’s city of Ancona who came to the Latin
American place during a large-scale European
immigration at the turn of the 19th century. This
Spanish-trained professional footballer, the high-
scoring forward of Barcelona, has two brothers,
Rodrigo and Matas, and a sister, Maria Sol. On the
other hand, his cousins Maximiliano and
Emmanuel Biancucchi are also soccer players.
His sporting life goes back to times when Messi
grew up playing football in Rosario, a land famous
for their athletic pa$$ion and hosted the World
Championships for both professional and
amateurs, including the Men’s Football World Cup
(1978) and Men’s Volleyball Global Tournament
(1982);Messi can take credit for that because he
has been named official Amba$$ador for Rosario’s
2019 Pan American bid. Under this Olympic
atmosphere, Jorge Horacio Messi made no secret
of his ambitions for his son.
Like several Latino champs –among them Edwin
Vásquez Cam (shooting) and Nancy López (golf) —
Messi was introduced to sport by his father. Before
joining the Newell’s Old Boy’s youth side, Lionel -
when he was only 5 years old— played in the local
team of Grandioli, where his father was coach. On
that occasion, the smaller Lionel was a goalie on
the football team. At the time, he had a lot of
athletic skills, but not the technical skills. Shortly
after, while Lionel demonstrated his talent in the
under-10 competitions in his homeland and abroad
in the middle of the 1990s, the Argentine boy, at
the age of 11, was diagnosed with a growth
hormone deficiency. Since then, prior to begin an
athletic career as a junior player in the following
years, he had to beat back an illness, whose
treatment cost $ 900 a month. But in spite of this
problem, his enthusiasm for football was
unbelievable.
A Golden Opportunity
Recognizing Messi’s precocious talent, Carles
Rexach, a sports administrator, promised him that
FC Barcelona would pay his treatment if he
decideto play for the famous club.The answer was
“yes”, of course. As a consequence of this, Messi
and his parents moved permanently to
Barcelonese soil, a football-mad place. On that
occasion, the youngster was sad to leave his home
city. However, the Spaniard place had a special
significance to Messi: There, on May 3, 1980, his
fellow Argentine Maradona signed a six-year
contract with the traditional side.
The travel proved to be a turning point in his life. In
the capital and largest city of Spain’s Catalan region
— one of Europe’s first cla$$ cities— Messi
received a scholarship to play football in Barca’s
athletic academy, alongside Xabi Alonso, Gerard
Piqu, Andrs Iniesta and other boys. The Club’s
Youth Academy (one of Western Europe’s major
sports academies), was set up with one primary
goal in mind: Scans up to 300 young talents and
transform some of them into champions. The
youth squads have always preoccupied Barcelona’s
sports leaders. In recent decades, the Spaniard
club sent scouts to Latin America looking for
promising youth athletes.
As well as being the nation’s second largest city
behind Madrid, Barcelona is a place that is tied
closely to the Olympic Movement, physical activity
and all of the values that sport represent in the
21st Century. This corner of the planet, host to the
1992 Summer Olympic Games, is an international
grandstand with recreational spaces, sports
academies, and state-of-the-art Olympian facilities
on a par with other sporting cities such as London
(UK), Singapore City, Doha (Qatar), Montreal
(Canada), Dubai ( United Arab Emirates), and Los
Angeles (CA). Additionally, it was home of Mr. Juan
Antonio Samaranch, former Chairman of the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) and among
the world’s most gifted and influential sports
administrators.
During a breakout year, after overcoming his
illness, Messi, who was about four-foot-seven-inch
tall, become one of Barca’s top male players in the
Boys’ Division of the Spanish Football
Championships. There, he had been outstanding
throughout the event, scoring over 35 goals and
setting numerous records for his age group. A
couple of years later, under the aegis of Spain’s
Club, Messi improved rapidly his play and was
promoted to the junior team’s starting lineup,
competing in the under-19 tournaments.
Encouraged by Frank Rijkaard
As a young teen, he got the first opportunity to
used his talent as a member of Barca’s official
contingent when he made his first appearance in
the friendly against Porto on November 16, 2003.
Following his initial impact, scoring 22 goals in the
junior competitions, the up-and-coming Messi, by
late 2003, was moved up to the reserves of the
club: The squad “C”, prior to winning the right to
play for Barcelona B side, a second division club.
Messi, as a young athlete, acquired enough
expertise to participate in senior soccer events,
face-to-face with finest professional players from
Europe and abroad. It was an excellent school for
him, of course.
After watching his athletic performance in the
traditional junior contests on Spaniard soil, Frank
Rijkaard, Barca’s major coach at the time, put his
eyes on Messi –perhaps his most famous pupil–
and did not doubt that he would be the next
greatest footballer on the Planet —Perhaps a
Maradona. Nonetheless,the high-flying coach was
not the first to be excited by the potential of Messi.
On the other hand, Rijkaard backed up a number of
young players, including Carles Puyol and Vctor
Valds.
At the age of 17, Messi had a chance to show his
athletic potential. Fortunately,he did not disappoint
to Barca’s sports officials and soccer fans when he
entered the highest level in Spanish championship,
by pa$$ing many senior footballers and becoming
the youngest player in the domestic soccer league.
It was one of the greatest moments of Messi’s life
on the soccer field.
Encouraged by his coach, Frank Rijkaard, Messi,
months later, made his mark with the club by
scoring his first senior goal against Albacete
Balompi, becoming the youngest footballer from
Barcelona to ever score in the domestic football
league, among the world’s most competitive sports
tournaments. By any standards it is a phenomenal
achievement. In fact, Rijkaard made him the focus
of the team’s new offfensive scheme. Later on,
Messi spoke with gratitude about Rijkaard, “I will
never forget the fact that he launched my career,
that he had confidence in me while I was only
sixteen or seventeen”. Without a doubt, he was
considered one of the great prospects of the world
football.
A Champion In the Netherlands
By the mid-2000s,Messi brought home his
country’s fifth junior global title, considered a huge
success in the South American republic; It was a
history-making day for the Argentinean Football a$
$ociation (AFA). Messi began his work with his
homeland when Argentina’s sports officials called
on him to join the 2005 junior World Cup team.
Always a heavy favorite with the Dutch fans, the
national side, sparked by Messi, came first in the
global contest in front of the Amsterdam
(Netherlands’ capital) crowd, an international
sporting platform to numerous unknown
footballers. Thereupon, Messi collected two special
awards in Holland: The Golden Ball and the Golden
Shoe.
Futbol Club Barcelona: 2005- 2006 Season
The breakthrough season for the team and Messi
came in 2005-06. Three of Barcelona’s Spanish
titles can be attributed to Messi: Domestic League,
Cataluña Cup, and Spanish Supercup— beginning a
new period of success for Spain’s most popular
club and topping the TV sports rankings in the
European nation. On that occasion, Messi also ama
$$ed three individual trophies.
On September 27, 2005,before a crowd of several
fans and spectators at Barcelona’s Nou Camp
Stadium (among the world’s major football stadia),
star youngster Messi made his debut as a local
player in the European League Championship
(against Italy’s Udinese). He competed with Barca
until his injury, six months later. In spite of playing
without Messi, however, the club earned the
famous Champions League, one of the four big
international events on Earth, along with the
Olympic Games (Winter and Summer), and the FIFA
World Cup.
In the same year, the prolific scorer Messi was
named as Europe’s best young player by Tuttosport
(a magazine from Italy), gaining the Golden Boy
Trophy, by pa$$ing several sportsmen such as
Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.
Curiously, Spain is home of one of the world’s
largest populations of foreign-born athletes(along
with France, Canada and the oil-rich Kingdom of
Qatar) such as Eulogio Martínez (Paraguay,
football), Nina Zhivanevskaya (Russia, swimming),
Juan Domingo de la Cruz (Argentina, basketball),
Glory Alozie (athletics, Nigeria), and Juan Pérez
(Cuba, waterpolo). By the end of 2005, Messi was
one of the last athletes to become a Spanish citizen
(dual citizenship), making him eligible to play as a
Spanish player in the National League.
FIFA 2006 World Cup
Historically, Argentina has the honor of being the
third Third World country to capture the global
contest after Uruguay (1930 & 1950) and Brazil
(1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002). Due to this
tradition and thanks to its world-beating players on
European soil, the Argentine football squad had
become one of the top favorites to gain the 2006
FIFA Cup, but they finished sixth overall (ahead of
three Europeans squads: England, Ukraine and
Spain), after losing to host Germany in the
quarterfinals. Immediately, Argentina’s soccer fans
blamed José Pekerman, national coach, for the
defeat against Germany. Why? Incredibly, Messi
was excluded to play that game.
Certainly, Messi had dissapointed 2006. Although,
he made his long-awaited debut in the World Cup
as he led Argentina -two-time winner of the men’s
football World Cup (1978 & 1986)– to win its first
points following a triumph over Serbia-Montenegro
(former Yugoslavia). In Germany, he played three
of Argentina’s five football matches.
During the 2006 World Cup, Messi became
Argentina’s most youngest footballer to attend the
FIFA Cup. The following year,Messi and his fellow
Argentine players finished as runner-ups to Brazil
in the 2007 America’s Cup on Venezuelan soil.
Spain’s ‘Football War’
Throghout his 2006-07 season, Messi had become
a regular player in his European squad, competing
on equal terms with senior players and attracting
huge numbers of interested fans. It was truly an
inspiring moment. However, he withdrew from the
Spaniard Football League due to an injury (a game
against Real Zaragosa).
With better health and upon spending three
months on South American soil, Messi went back
to Spain, playing in the match between Barcelona
and Racing de Santander. Soon after, he made a
hat-trick when his club drawn 3-3 with Real Madrid,
a match between the two most popular teams in
Spain (better known as “The Clasico”). Since
decades ago, these matches have been labelled the
“Spain’s Football War”, attracting the largest
average audience in the European country and
numerous regions around the world, especially in
soccer nations. In fact, it is a battle which is being
won by Barca’s team in recent years.
Messi’s Hand of God Goal
As he entered his 20s, by 2007, he picked up a total
of 14 individual trophies inside and outside Spain,
a new personal record over his professional
career. But this wasn’t all. Evoking the style of
Argentina’s former star Maradona, Messi, was
dubbed “Messidona” in the course of an
impressive career as a sportsman.
During a never-to-be-forgotten game, on April 18,
2007, the Barcelonese club got two goals from
Messi to defeat Getafe CF in the semis of the Copa
del Rey; one goal inspired comparisons to Diego
Maradona’s ‘Hand of God ‘goal against England’s
squad at the 1986 Mexico City World Tournament
— it appeared that Messi may have knocked the
ball into the net with his fist. In fact, this was great
news both for Barcelona and the whole country.
Nobody could imagine this feat. His fellow player
Deco said, “It was the best goal I have ever seen in
my life”.
2007-2008 Campaign
Over the course of the season,Messi was in the
spotlight as he was regarded as the world’s top
footballer by experts, sportswriters, coaches,
players, and sports administrators. Meanwhile,
Messi was elected as one of the 14th Best Male
Athletes in 2007 by a total of 422 AIPS
(International Sports Press a$$ociation) members
from 94 countries–ahead of South Africa’s rugby
star Bryan Habana and Rafael Nadal, a tennis
player from Spain.
After making a record in soccer world —scored
five goals over a span of seven days– Messi helped
Barcelona to become one of the four leaders in the
first cla$$ Spaniard championship. He was the
answer to their lack of versatility in attacking
positions. In fact, he sees Barcelona through the
eyes of a lover. Additionally, he scored also two
goals in the UEFA Champions League. In beginning
2008, Messi celebrated his 100th match.
In March, the star athlete was forced to drop out of
the Champions League because of an injury.
Following over a month, he returned to the line-up,
competing with Cristiano Ronaldo, considered
among the globe’s finest footballers. Under Messi’s
guidance, however, the Barcelonese club was
eliminated from the European championship,
showing the effects of his injury. Certainly, Messi
had not a strong performance in this season,
winning only two unofficial events (Beckenbauer
Cup in Germany and Joan Gamper Trophy). In July
of that year, on the other hand, Messi was
appointed as the captain for the first time in a
friendly match against Scotland’s Dundee United.
Subsequently, the Barcelonese soccer club paid
tribute to Messi’s perseverance: Wearing the shirt
number ten for the first time (historically given to
the leading scorer), the number worn by former
stars such as Romario Souza of Brazil, Hugo Sotil of
Peru and Maradona, Messi began a new period in
Barca, few weeks prior to 2008 the Summer
Games.
Messi At the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Argentina earned its first soccer medal in the 1928
Amsterdam Games, after falling to Uruguay’s side
in the gold-medal match. Then, the national
contingent was asked to replace Uruguay in the
1976 Montreal Games, but it did not accept.
During the Centennial Games in the States, on
August 3, 1996, the Argentine team was runner-up
to Nigeria (sub-Saharan Africa)-matched its
performance in the 1920s. In the 26th Olympiad,
the silver medalists were Roberto Ayala, José
Chamot, Javier Zanetti, Roberto Sensini and Diego
Pablo Simeone, Ariel Ortega, Hernan Crespo, and
Claudio López, among others footballers. Over the
next years, by 2004, the Spanish-speaking republic
placed first in the Athens XXVIII Summer Games
upon their victory over Paraguay, a feat never
before accomplished by a male squad from
Argentina in the men’s soccer Olympic Cup.
Messi was Latin America’s top hope for a medal in
the 2008 Olympiad. Nonetheless, there were
troubles to send Messi to Beijing: his club did not
approve his Olympic participation. After a long-
running conflict between the Spaniard club and
AFA (Argentinean Football a$$ociation), Messi was
eligible to represent his nation in the 2008 Beijing
Olympics, where he won his second major global
event following a convincing triumph over Nigeria,
one of the most extraordinary results in the history
of the Olympic Championship. It was interesting to
note that Messi was a great Olympian champ in the
People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Unlike Pele (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) -a long-
standing senior player from Brazil– and Maradona,
Messi has won an Olympic gold medal after
Argentina defeated six countries in the men’s
Olympian football championship in the Games of
29th Olympiad in mainland China, becoming the
first world-cla$$ soccer player to win a trophy in
the Modern Olympics since the early 1950s when
Ferenc Puskas took the Hungarian team to its first
Olympian title in the Finland Summer Games.
The Soccer Tournment included some strong
names such as Brazil, Belgium, Holland,and Cote
d’Ivoire.There, this Spanish-trained professional
player also helped Argentina to win their second
straight Olympic title; the nation’s fourth Olympian
medal in men’s football. As well as earning the gold
in the People’s Republic, Messi was regarded as
one of Latin America’s foremost Olympic athletes.
Nonetheless, his trophy was overshadowed by the
wins of Michael Phelps, Usain Powell of Jamaica
( 3-time Olympic gold medalist ) and other
champions.
2008-2009 Season
After being part of the Olympic gold-winning squad
in 2008, Messi won the world’s best footballer by
FIFA ( the world’s governing body of soccer ).
In beginning 2009, Barcelona’s 2-1 win over Racing
de Santander was one of Messi’s most notable
matches, scoring both goals in the last 45 minutes.
Messi entered the match when its club was
defeated (0-1), but he confirmed his international
status when he was able to break down a
Santander defense. During the game, Spain’s team
made its 5,000 goal with Messi.
After making worldwide headlines on Spaniard soil,
he was a key player when his club had a convincing
6-2 win over Real Madrid at Santiago de Bernabu
Stadium in Spain’s capital city— Without a doubt,
one of the greatest games of Messi’s athletic
career. As has traditionally been the case, this a
match attracted several neutral fans across the
globe. Messi’s other important achievement was
when Barcelona’s side finished first in the unofficial
event Joan Gamper Trophy for the third time in a
row. In 2008, he came away with 10 individual
awards.
His Play Speaks For Itself
By the time the 2009-10 season, Messi brought
about a sporting revolution at Barcelona.
Astonishingly, his side won all the championships.
For these wins, some experts and sportswriters
believe he is better than Maradona and Pele.
Upon claiming five prestigious competitions —the
Champions League, the UEFA Supercup, the
Spanish Cup (Copa del Rey), the National League,
and the Spanish Supercup— Messi was able to lead
Barcelona side to victory in the FIFA Club World
Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the turn
of the 2009, becoming Spain’s most popular person
and making Barcelona one of the world’s most
successful clubs in football history. Apart from
winning these events, he collected over 15
individual awards in the Americas, Persian Gulf,
and Western Europe: World Football of the Year,
Alfredo Di Stefano Trophy, World Selection, Best
Player in the Club World Cup, and Champions
Trophy, among other trophies.
In April 2010, one of the most interesting statistics
came from Messi when he became Barcelona’s
first footballer to score four goals in the
Champions League-all against Arsenal F.C.
Likewise, he made a name for himself in soccer
world as he was Barcelona’s top scorer in the
Champions League ( twenty-five goals). Later on,
Messi helped the club to capture the Spanish
league, as well as winning two special trophies as
the Best Player.
Spain: The Best Domestic Football
Not all of Messi’s play was acclaimed in 2010.
Despite the optimism following Messi’s strong
performance in Western Europe, Argentine side
was eliminated by Germany (0-4), allowing it to
secure a top five position in the FIFA Global
Tournament;one of Messi’s most disapponting
results in this period.
The men’s football team of Argentina departed for
Africa in the quest of their third Global Cup. From
the beginning, Los Celestes entered the 2010 South
Africa World Cup as a front-runner to win the title.
Prior to being eliminated in the quaterfinals, the
South American nation had four wins: Nigeria (1-0),
South Korea (4-1), Greece (2-0), and Mexico (3-1).
Ironically, the Spanish national team won the
Global Cup for the first time.
Although one of the most prominent sportsmen in
this Century, Messi has not won a World Cup (2006
& 2010). In sub-Saharan Africa, his production was
poor: He did not score a single goal. Up to now, his
results pale in comparison with Maradona and
Pele.
2010-2011 Season
In September 2010, Messi’s play captivated the
audience, from experts and sportswriters to fans,
setting new Spanish and European records. For the
third consecutive time,the star player became top
scorer in the Champions League. It was
unbelievable. In the whole event, the sport’s
greatest footballer was a “perfect machinery”.
Spearheaded by its idol Messi, the Barcelonese
club ama$$ed two tournaments – The national
tournament and then Champions League for the
second successive year, sparking off celebrations
in the Spaniard city of Barcelona. In the meantime,
he gained the FIFA Ballon d’ Or. These wins have
helped construct an excellent relationship between
Messi and his fans inside and outside Spain. In his
native country, however, there is another
atmosphere.
America’s Cup
Argentina’s side was upset by Brazil in the finals of
the 2007 South American Cup (there Messi
appeared in all six of his nation’s games). Four
years later, the traditional event was held in
Argentina. There, the host nation entered the
regional contest, but it did not even make the
semis. On the eve of that event, Argentina was a
gold-medal contender well ahead of Brazil and
Uruguay.
Unfortunately, Messi could not do anything. In
spite of his extraordinary achievements in Western
Europe, the amazing Latino player was unable to
lead the Argentine side to win the Copa America
for the second time, being strongly criticized by
Argentina’s football fans.
The local squad had two draws with Bolivia (1-1)
and Colombia (0-0) before defeating Costa Rica
(3-0) and falling to eventual champion Uruguay
(4-5) in the quarter-finals. In his own land,Messi
did not score a single goal (except on a penalty)
over the course of the Latin American
championship. Undeterred, he departed for Spain.
Undoubtedly, some soccer fans don’t understand
why Argentina’s national team can not win
international tournaments with the world’s most
prominent soccer player.
2011-2012 Season
Spearheaded by Messi, the Barcelonese club
captured the Spanish Supercup on in August 2011.
With 8 goals, Messi was the top scorer in the
national contest, ahead of Raúl González Blanco.
Within a few weeks, they also won the European
Supercup. On December 18, 2011, Barcelona won
the Club World Cup by beating Brazil’s Santos (4-0).
There, Messi was the tournament’s most valuable
athlete. Astonishingly, Messi became the top
scorer (236 goals) in Barca’s history on March 31,
2012.
An Advocate for the Rights of Children
Latin America’s remarkable football player Messi is
regarded as Argentina’s long-standing advocate for
the rights of poor children. By 2007, he created a
self-named foundation,whose principal aim is to
improve education and health care of the future
generation of Argentina’s boys and girls. Recently
named UN Goodwill Amba$$ador for the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Messi works
closely with the international organization,
increasing global awareness and providing
financial aid to programs for children and mothers
on Earth.
–pinticles