Lionel Messi—probably the best player in the world today. He is one of the finest and most exciting footballing talents in the world. He had this never ending comparison with the former Manchester United Winger Cristiano Ronaldo but he kind of shrugged off it by helping his team defeat Manchester United convincingly in the UEFA Champions League finals at Rome 2009.
How did he attain this place at the top of the world? At cloud nine?
Messi’s performances in the 2005-06 season earned him rave reviews and a place in Argentina’s World Cup squad.
A forward or attacking midfielder, Messi is blessed with outstanding ball control and pace and has the potential to become one of the finest players the game has seen.
Barcelona is reaping the benefits of his growing maturity on the highest stage and at home in Argentina he has become the latest player to earn the moniker of ‘the new Maradona’. That is a difficult tag to carry, but so far he has borne it well.
Yet, Messi’s story could have ended before it begun had Barca not taken him under its wing at an early age. Messi was born in Rosario, Argentina, and showed a great aptitude for football as a child. He played at a club called Grandoli, which was coached by his father, from the age of five and later moved to Newell’s Old Boys.
He showed all the signs of having a promising footballing career ahead of him but at the age of 11 he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency that required expensive treatment.
His parents could not afford it but after some tentative signs of awareness in Messi’s talent from Barcelona, they decided to move to Spain. Messi tried out for Barca and the club was so impressed it agreed to pay for his medical treatment.
Barca is now receiving enormous return on its investment after Messi rose through the youth ranks to the very top. He was in the first team by 17 and a full international the following year.
He shone even in a Barcelona team boasting the ilk of Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o but missed the successful conclusion to Barca’s UEFA Champions League run having had his season ended prematurely by a thigh injury.
He also missed three months of the following season with a broken metatarsal but the second half of the 2006-07 campaign was when he truly came of age. He became the youngest Barca player ever to score a hat trick against its fiercest rival Real Madrid in ‘El Clasisco’ and netted 11 goals in the last 13 games of the season.
Barca fell short in its title defence in 2007 and has lost even more ground to Real Madrid in what has been a difficult 2007-08 campaign. Yet, through it all Messi, despite another lengthy spell out injured, has been the star.
It was chiefly through his form that the Catalan club reached the Champions League semifinals after a domestic title challenge had long since fizzled out.
2007-2008 was "so near yet so far" for Messi and Barca. They missed out of the La Liga title to Real and were defeated by a single goal in the UEFA Champions league semifinals by Manchester United
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