Messi (14 page)

Quique Domínguez: We used to warm up with the ball around the pitch, so when they played they would recognise what they had in front of them as a ball, not a brick. You know what I mean? Sometimes Leo would be in charge of the warm-up. I would do the paperwork, they would sign it and I would say to Leo, ‘take them out’, and Leo would trot up to the pitch. If Leo moved his leg this way, they’d all move it that way. They went down to the ground, Leo with his knee like this, and everybody did the same. But it wasn’t something I imposed on them, or that he told them to do; it was because he was the one they wanted to copy, a model to follow, it was natural. The image I have is of a mother duck with her ducklings following her.

Gerardo Grighini: We did not have a single leader. There were about 16 of us in the group, and quite a few of us made decisions. Leo, of course, and I also had a strong voice in the group, Leandro
Benítez … Lucas, Leo’s cousin, maybe not so much, he probably followed the three of us. There was another one, Juan, who also wanted to lead, but when you’re kids you sometimes clash and … well, he was not allowed to lead. Leo was not an all-powerful leader, imposing his ideas, but, rather, someone who was the best at football and had to be followed.

Adrián Coria: He used to listen to the coach’s instructions. He was respectful. He took it in. He never said, ‘I play the ball’, never said, ‘I’m the best’. His team-mates loved him. But …he did not like exercises. He loved the ball. And only I had to punish him in training. I’m not an ogre or a sergeant major, but I’ve always liked seriousness. We were doing a
rondo
when he started touching and playing with the ball. I called out to him once, twice, but he ignored me. In the end I said to him: ‘Give me the ball, get changed and go home.’ Ten minutes later I saw him with his bag on his back leaning against the wall, looking at the pitch. I was sad and it hurt me to see him like that. ‘You left without giving me a kiss,’ I shouted at him. He came back, kissed me, and I sent him back into the dressing room to get ready for training again. He was a shy boy but stubborn, but that was the only time I had to speak that way to him.

Quique Domínguez: Do you see those players who try to do a onetwo, and although what comes back to them is more like a brick than a ball they carry on running? Leo did that. A lot of them would have stopped halfway if they didn’t get it back the way they wanted.

Ernesto Vecchio: One very sunny Saturday afternoon at the Malvinas, we came up against Pablo VI. He received the ball from the goalkeeper, and accelerated from our area, going past players and around the rival goalie, who, in the act of trying to stop him, fell and twisted his ankle. The boy let out a cry of pain, which Leo obviously heard, and, instead of putting the ball into an empty net, stopped, turned back and not only went to help him but also got the referee’s attention so that the goalie could receive treatment. That stuck with me.

Quique Domínguez: And, what’s more, he was discreet. He didn’t shout, he wasn’t too effusive. Even when playing a prank. Once Newell’s gave us a pre-match training club jersey, all red with
some white on the sides, and Leo comes up to me and says: ‘what are you doing dressed as a Father Christmas? You look like one.’ I guess my girth was a bit out of control then and that didn’t help! Cheeky boy!

Diego Rovira: At that time we’d got into the habit of having our afternoon snack at my house. Scaglia, Benítez, Leo and me. We’d get together to play Nintendo. How we laughed. While my mother was preparing our snacks, we got ourselves ready: we would open the drawers of the wardrobe in my bedroom and put on the European football shirts that I had. My father is a doctor; he would travel to conferences, that sort of thing, and he would always bring me back a shirt: Barcelona, Manchester United, Real Madrid. I never used them, I just had them as souvenirs. Two drawers full of shirts. And before we played Nintendo, we would each pick one. Grighini, for example, would put on the Real Madrid shirt. Leo, the Barcelona one. The one they brought out in their centenary, the one that is half scarlet and half blue. Rivaldo’s shirt. He would always do the same thing: arrive at my house and go looking for the Barcelona shirt. Leo in one of my shirts, so funny – it looked like he’d put on a nightshirt.

Gerardo Grighini: He says that he is a Newell’s fan, but when we were kids he was a River fan. I was a fan of River, Lucas of Newell’s and Leandro, Boca. Leo was fanatical about Aimar, who at the time was playing at River, and we used to watch his matches and became fans of River. We spent a lot of time together. We used to stay in a
pension
at the weekends when we had to play.

Nestor Rozín: To improve the boys’ performance we had a
pension
, where boys from outside could come. To make sure they ate and slept well.

Gerardo Grighini: Leo, the little squirrel, would sleep in the very top bunk, he’d sleep on the third bed up. We enjoyed ourselves, we had a common purpose: to have a good time. At that time, a bottle of Coca-Cola cost 1.25 pesos. It was 2000, the year of the Arteaga mini-World Cup, and we had spent something like 20 days living together in the
pension
. It had rained the night before, and we wanted some Coca-Cola, but no one had a peso on them. That was the time when car windscreen cleaners, standing at the traffic lights, waiting for the red, first appeared in Argentina. So we said, ‘Shall we go and clean windscreens?’ ‘Go on,’ we said. ‘At least we’ll get a bit of loose change.’ Leo decided to cover himself in mud, mud that he got from the ditch beside the road, and as people were leaving the supermarket, he would ask, ‘a coin, lady?’ and she would give him two pesos. ‘A small coin, lady?’ So it was one and a half pesos, two pesos … 56 Coca-Colas we bought that day!! In future, when I have children I will tell them that I was a friend, that I played, that I shared all sorts of experiences with the best in the world.

Quique Domínguez: I said to my son (Argentinian international) Sebastián, that when he made his debut, even if it was with Boca (my heart is with River), I would give him my Ford Sierra. That same day, because it was all so emotional, I arrived late for training and, after the session, I came out of the dressing room and realised that I did not have the keys for the Sierra that I had promised my son. Worried, I returned to the dressing room, but I could not find them, and there I was met by all the boys sitting in a group together with Leo in the middle pretending to drive and making a noise as if he was accelerating, with the keys to the Sierra in his hand. ‘Looking for these, Father Christmas?’ asked Leo.

Gerardo Grighini: In those days, because we were so young, we could not go to the discotheque. So what we did was arrange meetings between friends and invite along the girls from our class. For example, if it was my birthday I would invite all my football team-mates and my school friends to my house, and we would try to match up. And Lucas’s three cousins were always invited. Antonella – Leo’s wife; Carla – the youngest; and Paula, the eldest. And Leo always, but
always
– I’m telling you, he was 10, maybe 11 – always in love with Antonella, always, always.
The truth is at that time it wasn’t mutual. I suppose afterwards Lucas did his stuff and they got to know each other better … At the parties when we were together Leo was shy, reserved … we used to say to him: ‘Go for it, Leo, go for it! Why don’t you fool around like the rest of us. When you play football, you are a little braver, mate!’ But he was shy, he stayed sitting down. Mischievous? We were placid kids. That was the type of mischief we got up to, going out and begging for money, but nothing else. More often than not we’d meet up at someone’s house and play Play-Station. Or at Lucas’s. Lucas’s house had two five-a-side football pitches and we would get together and play football there.

Gerardo Grighini: It was obvious to me that Leandro Benítez, Lucas and Leo all had the necessary qualities to play in the first division. What I never imagined was that Leo would go on to become the best in the world. ‘What do you dream of?’ we would ask each other; we would always talk about this. ‘Getting into the first division’ was always his answer. His dream was to play for Newell’s. Later things happened, and he ended up at Barcelona, but I don’t think it will be more than five years before he returns to Newell’s. When he is 30 I think he will come back. Once he has won the World Cup – God willing, we’ll win the next one coming up – he will feel he has really made it. And he’ll come home. That is what I think anyway.

Ernesto Vecchio: I always said that he had a huge future, and I wasn’t wrong. I would have loved it if Rodas had got there as well, Depetris, kids with a superb technique. But anyway …

Adrián Coria: I had to spend some time watching those who were about to start playing on the 11-a-side pitches. Leo had growth problems. No one could raise the money that was needed for the treatment he needed. I used to say to Pepeto (Roberto Puppo, the junior technical director at Newell’s), ‘you have influence and contacts, why don’t you try to help him? When Leo becomes better than Diego he will return the favour.’ I think the money we’re talking about for the injections was about 900 pesos per month. Fortunately I have witnesses who can confirm that I was pressing his case, that I thought he could be as big as Diego. Sometimes I mention it to Tata Martino and to other important footballing friends. He was going to make it for sure.

Leo Messi in
El Gráfico
: ‘I was a bit smaller than the rest, but on the pitch you didn’t notice it. The people who saw me injecting myself were surprised and felt ill. It didn’t worry me and it didn’t hurt. Wherever I went I took the syringe with me in its case and put it straight into the fridge, if I went to a friend’s house, for example. I
would then take it out and put it straight into my quadriceps. Every night it was like this. One day one leg; the next day, the other one.’

Nestor Rozín: When he went from seven-a-side to 11, we noticed the difference, because Newell’s were known for bringing on players from the countryside, well-built and well-fed, and he was small.

Gerardo Grighini: He would administer them [the injections] as if it was perfectly normal. He never explained to me what they were for. He carried with him a little box like a freezer, cold, and inside he would have little bottles of liquid, and it was like a type of pencil with a little needle, and he had a hole where he put the little bottle, and then he’d stick the syringe in his leg. Week after week, every day. Before going to sleep. Seven days in one leg, seven days in the other. And he did it quite naturally, just like that, sorted! When he’d finished it he took out the needle; it’s not as if he looked at us so we could ask him about it, no. When we were all at the
pension
(there were about 16 of us, about 11 years old), can you imagine seeing that … But we didn’t laugh about it, or talk about it, nothing.

Juan Cruz Leguizamón: You looked at his legs and they were full of little punctures, but we weren’t sure what they were. We were kids and at that age we took no notice. The only thing that interested us was playing.

Matías Messi (Leo’s brother): Yes, to tell you the truth it was a bit difficult for all the family; we brothers didn’t feel it so much because we were so young, but the family did.

Gerardo Grighini: What’s taken him to the level he’s now reached is his talent – no question – and his self-belief. I don’t think just anyone has the mental strength when they’re only 10 or 11 to say: ‘I’m going to do this, because it’s got to help me in the future.’ Alone, sticking in the needle, giving himself an injection before going to bed. He knew that in the future it would help him fulfil his dream of playing in the first division.

Lucas Scaglia (Leo’s best friend, footballer): He never cried about the injections.