Messi

by Guillem Balague

  Messi

  Guillem Balague

  FOREWORD BY

  ALEJANDRO SABELLA

  AFTERWORD BY

  SANDRO ROSELL

  To my dad who has started reading again

  To my mum who is the strongest person I know

  To Maribel, my good fairy

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  List of Illustrations

  Foreword by Alejandro Sabello, Argentina National Team Manager

  Introduction

  Part One: In Rosario

  1

  ‘Pass it, Leo!’ But He Never Did

  2

  Waiting for Leo

  3

  Goodbye, Leo

  Part Two: In Barcelona

  1

  Landing in Barcelona. Well, in Rosario. That Is, in Barcelona

  2

  Making His Way

  3

  Becoming a Champion

  4

  Frank Rijkaard: The Rise

  5

  Frank Rijkaard: The Decline

  6

  Leo Is not a Natural-born Genius. Nobody Is

  7

  Dealing with Maradona

  Part Three: At The Peak

  1

  Breaking Records

  2

  Where Is Leo Heading?

  3

  Alejandro Sabella

  4

  Thiago: The Definitive 10

  Afterword by Sandro Rosell, President of FC Barcelona

  Dramatis Personae

  Bibliography

  Acknowledgements

  Index

  Plate Section

  By the Same Author

  Copyright

  List of Illustrations

  The smallest one is Leo (second row, l to r, fifth) age four with the children’s football team Grandoli. Behind him is coach Salvador Aparicio.

  Age five (front row, l to r, second). Jorge, his dad, with the blue coat, was his coach for a season with Grandoli.

  The great 87 generation. And the Game of the Mask.

  The day of his debut with the first team, against Porto (16 October 2003). Yes, he was a bit lost.

  Then he got on to the pitch and came to life.

  Ronaldinho adopted Messi as his ‘brother’.

  A man for the big occasion: Champions League final, 2009.

  An extraordinary season. In 2009, Barcelona won everything.

  One day his dad asked him to turn around and give time to his fans. He never needed to be told again.

  The winning goal of the FIFA Club World Cup, 2009, in extra time. A very hard game.

  Six titles out of six. The perfect year for Barcelona and Leo.

  With Pep Guardiola, many of Leo’s habits changed. His physical preparation became more individually orientated. After two years of injury nightmares, he learned to listen to his body.

  First Ballon d’Or, 2009. With his mum Celia, and his dad Jorge. The road there was arduous.

  When Messi was 13, his mum had to leave Barcelona to look after the other half of the family who could not adapt to life in Barcelona. She is the centre of his world. Here he celebrates her birthday after yet another goal.

  Messi cried the day Barcelona lost against Sevilla in the Cup . . . after having won every single title in the first year and a half with Pep. Every defeat is a little death.

  After Ronaldinho left, the Catalans looked after Leo. They knew he was going to make them better, to help them win.

  Man of the match, goalscorer of the 2-1 . . . at Wembley Leo Messi helped Barcelona win another Champions League.

  His third Champions League win, but he only celebrated two.

  In 2011, at Wembley, the world recognised he was not just something special. He was probably the best ever. Sir Alex Ferguson went out of his way to shake his hand.

  Winning is the thing to do, but scoring against and beating Real Madrid makes the job special.

  Pep had to understand how to talk to Leo. At first, fluent communication was not easy.

  Always a pleasure to sign the Argentinian shirt, even though for years his compatriots did not believe in him.

  The 2011 Club World Cup against Santos was the consecration of the Barcelona style.

  On that day, Leo Messi asked Neymar to join Barcelona.

  Lionel with his mother Celia (right) and Monica Fein, mayor of Messi’s home town Rosario, after being made Honorary Citizen on 30 December 2011. He is finally recognised at home.

  Third Ballon d’Or. He wanted more.

  He cries in silence. Even after having won everything, there are defeats that hurt too much.

  And when he does cry, as he still does, he just wants to be in his own world. It is hard to deal with him then.

  On the pitch at the last game with Pep Guardiola at the Camp Nou. Messi scored four goals and said goodbye to him on the pitch. ‘Thank you for everything, Leo,’ Pep told him.

  Tito Vilanova was the first coach at the Barcelona academy to make him play in his current position. They met again in the first team and Leo backed him when he became first team coach. Seeing Vilanova getting ill was very hard for him.

  He tries to live with what fame brings. But these are the moments he likes the least.

  Commercially, it has taken a while for him to take off, partly because he wanted to be a player first, never a label.

  Leo doesn’t play to please you, me or anybody. But he certainly appreciates the support.

  Leo and a ball. A special relationship.

  With Jose Manuel Pinto, a close friend who knows how to look after him.

  Leo and Dad. Leo and his manager.

  He prefers to be discreet off the pitch, but he has a strong personality that only those close to him can see.

  He works with the Leo Messi Foundation to help kids. He started it after a visit to a ward with kids suffering from cancer which made him cry.

  Nobody got this far.

  His contract renewed again. The club wants to make sure he is always happy.

  Leo and Barcelona. He gave the club lots. The club gave him lots. An excellent marriage.

  Foreword

  by Alejandro Sabella

  I was appointed national team manager after the Copa América in Argentina. The national side had been eliminated despite not losing a game: they drew twice and beat Costa Rica in the group phase, then drew with Uruguay in the quarter-finals, before losing on penalties. When a team with players of this quality and strength plays in a tournament of that nature, we all find it frustrating if they don’t end up as champions. Even when, as happened in this case, they do not lose a single game.

  It is normal for the players to have a heightened sense of expectation at the beginning of a new era, with a new coach. We were coming at a low ebb, having failed to progress further in the Copa América. I felt there were conflicting feelings – despite the disappointment, we were sufficiently motivated to move forward with renewed optimism.

  The first time I spoke to Leo was in Barcelona. It was in 2011, soon after my appointment. I set out to meet all the players who were playing for sides in Europe. My first stop was Portugal, followed by Barcelona. I didn’t know Leo personally, but I wanted to speak to him and to Javier [Mascherano], whom I had met before and who was the captain, to suggest that Leo should wear the armband of the national side. The main purpose of my trip was to introduce myself and to get to know the players, especially those I didn’t know, such as Leo, but the question of the team captaincy was important to me. I considered it essential for everyone to know Leo was the leader and that he would lead in his own natural manner. It was vital that he should be recognised as such by the players.

  The three of us met, and afterwards I
went to Italy, leaving them to discuss it among themselves and to give me their answer. I think it was Javier who rang me to say yes, Leo would be the captain.

  After that meeting we met again in India to play one of the national team’s first games, a friendly against Venezuela, and later against Nigeria in Bangladesh. But if one match symbolised the new era, it was surely the one against Colombia in the South American qualifiers for the Brazil World Cup 2014. We went through a difficult moment in Barranquilla where, fortunately, the lads were able to turn around a match played in suffocating heat. We were losing 1–0 after a goal from Dorlan Pabón that went in off Mascherano. Fortunately Messi equalised before Agüero made it 2–1 near the end.

  As I often say, in football there are defining games, matches that provide the lift you need, the push required to get you going along this new road. I think that game was perhaps the beginning, because after that we started to build a close-knit group and, when a group is close, they get results, are happy playing together and achieve so much more. It is the perfect way, the only way, to overcome your weaknesses.

  I am asked if that match defined not only the national team, but Leo himself, since it was from that match onwards that he began to be perceived differently in Argentina. It was certainly the start of a change of perception but there was another one as important, on 29 February, the day we played Switzerland away. That was such a wonderful performance. The day Leo scored a hat-trick. It was his first hat-trick for his country. He had done it for Barcelona countless times, but that was his first one in the blue and white of Argentina. Later in the same year he scored three more goals against Brazil… But, yes, that game against Colombia was, from both a footballing and coaching point of view, the confidence boost we needed.

  What I can say is that Leo is a very calm person. He possesses natural leadership as a result of the enormous level of ability he has attained, and what is more, his leadership is accepted by everyone.

  I like to give all footballers freedom, and that includes Leo. They live with enough pressure as it is, and I prefer to let them move around freely. The captaincy brings with it greater responsibility, but Leo knows this and has accepted it, and it is helping him to mature and grow. And that is also good for his team-mates.

  His team talks and private discussions remain in-house, but I can say that there is undoubtedly a generally happier vibe within the group, a sense of calm that goes beyond work and the job. There is a relaxed and happy atmosphere. It is crucial.

  And there you have the mixture you need for Messi to show what he is capable of. Leo has to feel comfortable, and first and foremost he needs to be free. He needs the flexibility to know that he can do whatever is necessary on the pitch at any given moment. In truth, I only discuss the bare minimum with him, merely what is necessary. I don’t want to put any extra pressure on him, because the footballers already know the importance of the games, and of their individual contributions to the side.

  When you talk about Messi, you need to talk about his development, because, as they say, the hard bit isn’t about getting there, it’s about staying there. So winning four consecutive Ballon d’Ors is a sign of great progress. Obviously just winning one Ballon d’Or is hard enough, but to win four on the trot is proof positive of just how far he has evolved as a player. During the past few years he has grown to maturity and has developed extraordinary skills that have served to make him increasingly better as a player. It is difficult to maintain, let alone exceed that level of excellence, but somehow he has achieved it.

  I am sure that taking over the captaincy of Argentina has served him well in that process. It is necessary to get the confidence of everybody around you to grow as a person and as a player.

  The year 2012 was a great one for Leo with the national side, a result of the maturity he has gained as he has grown older. When they say that a footballer has reached his peak, what are you supposed to do? Leave him to his own devices? It is important, for my part, that education and direction continue. No player is ever too good to receive constructive advice and direction.

  To illustrate his immense attributes as a player you need only look at the opening match of the 2013−14 league campaign against Levante that Barcelona won 7–0. When Leo goes in to steal the ball he does it with conviction and determination until he succeeds in his objective, as he demonstrated in that game: he stole it and it became the third goal. I have even seen him score headers as if he were a natural. What he is, in fact, is one of those extraordinary players who only gets better, as difficult as that is.

  Barcelona chose to play him in the centre, a ploy we copied in the national side, simply because it worked so well for them. Leo gets more of the ball in that area, and the more he gets the ball the better it is for everyone else. As he is mature, confident, intelligent, he cannot be marginalised on the sides. And with Higuaín and Agüero opening up the spaces for him, and with Di María operating on the wing, Leo can decide from his position in the centre where to take the game. It is clear that with these players Leo has become more powerful, and vice versa.

  So that everything works out well, I ask all of the players to make that little extra effort to win the ball back, to help those at the back, to sacrifice themselves more. And Leo has to defend wherever he may be in the play and within the possibilities opened up to him. No one asks him to perform miracles, but the main thing about Leo, and others in the side, is what they do with the ball. This is where Leo’s work bears fruit.

  Normally the best players in the world play in the world’s best sides, and they are the ones who have the longest seasons and play the most games. Naturally this sets them apart. What is important is that they get to that stage, at their peak, at the World Cup. Some achieve it, some do not. Now we have a team that is playing well, that gives an appearance of solidity and looks like a team; that is what they showed in a friendly against Italy on 14 August 2013. But the fact of the matter is that any team in which Messi plays is never going to be the same team without him. We have to try to get rid of the notion that we cannot achieve victory without Messi. That obviously affects morale, and on that day, despite Leo’s absence, we played a great game. There is no doubt though – yes, we can survive without him. But he is irreplaceable. And no, there is no contradiction in what I am saying.

  Messi is our symbol, our standard-bearer. An extraordinary player who plays in an extraordinary team. Maybe the greatest player of all time.

  Introduction

  Where’s Leo?

  That was the question on everyone’s lips in Leo’s classroom at the Juan Mantovani Middle School. His school was situated in the district of Las Heras in the south of the Argentinian city of Rosario, close to his home. Leo had missed a week of school and, apart from brief illnesses, he rarely did that. His desk stood empty, and at playtime, when someone got a ball out, the game seemed even more confusing. There is no football pitch at the Juan Mantovani and there are always too many kids for the small, cramped playground. It did not encourage spacious, expansive games and, with Leo absent, even less so. It had been some days since he had been seen.

  It was September, three months before the end of the academic year which in Argentina begins in December. Exams were set around that time and Leo couldn’t be present. Someone asked on his behalf if he could do his exams on another day or if he could be given work while he was away.

  No, sorry.

  Has Leo come in today?

  His team-mates at Rosario club Newell’s Old Boys (NOB) where he played in the lower ranks were asking the same question. He’d missed a number of training sessions at the Malvinas training academy, and he wasn’t he around for the match at the weekend either. ‘Hepatitis,’ said someone at the club. ‘He’s got hepatitis.’ Ah, that’ll be it. Nobody really knew what it was, but it sounded terrible, something that if you caught it meant that you certainly couldn’t play football. ‘Yes, the Maestro has hepatitis.’ That’ll be it.

  The Maestro. Messi had at other times also b
een el Piqui (Titch) at school, but was ‘the Maestro’ to his adolescent peers (as others among them were ‘Clark Kent’, ‘the Galician’, ‘the Greyhound’, ‘the Korean’ because of his haircut): no one had Christian names and surnames in Argentinian football. And that’s how the official squad list was written. Name, date of birth, height and nickname: ‘the Mouse’, ‘the Bitumen’, ‘the Short One’ …

  Where has Leo gone?

  Adrián Coria looked after this diverse group, Leo’s first 11-a-side trainer, but he too knew nothing of the boy’s whereabouts. Strange to disappear in September. And more than strange, a problem: winning without Leo would be much harder. Someone telephoned Quique Dominguez, his previous coach at Newell: ‘No idea, I don’t know where he is.’ But he assumed that something was happening: he was always a reliable boy but when he had gone for a trial at River Plate just over a year earlier he hadn’t said anything then either. Had River finally taken him on? Someone said he had hepatitis.

  The Messi family got a phone call some days before. ‘Come now, bring the boy.’ They had waited so long for this day, and now, suddenly, everything was happening in a rush. They had to prepare to go to Europe.

  Newell’s were not told. Not a single coach, technical director or player in the club knew what was going on. Neither Leo nor his dad, Jorge, always looking after the career of his kid, wanted to tell anybody. It was not difficult to keep their own counsel: they are both discreet, equally reserved. Cast in the same mould.

  With a sense of premonition the Rosario newspaper La Capital devoted an entire page to the youngster. The first one. It was 3 September 2000. ‘A Very Special Little Leper’ read the headline, ‘Leper’ a sobriquet shared by all his team-mates at the club that had once, in the 1920s, played a charity match to raise money for a leper clinic. And on one side a smiling Leo, head tilted, wearing an NOB shirt. He will always be a Leper, a passionate supporter of Newell’s, the club that was ‘everything’ to him in his youth, where he had just won the title in his team’s age group, a source of pride to him. And with his quiet voice (it was difficult to get the boy to smile for the camera), he shared with the journalist interviewing him some of his dreams. He wanted to be a PE teacher. And to play in the first division, naturally.