While his club team, Barcelona, is based in Spain, he stays faithful to his home country by playing for Argentina’s national team.
Lionel Andrés Messi was born on June 24, 1987 in the city of Rosario, Argentina. Rosario is a big city located almost two hundred miles northwest of the capital city of Buenos Aires. Argentina is a South American country. The city has a deepwater port that connects with the Panama River and also has a main railroad terminal. Naturally, Rosario is a main shipping center for all types of goods that are imported and exported throughout the region.
It is a very old and busy city, rich in history. You don’t have to travel very far to find a historic site, museum, statue, or monument. It was also known for its industry, and there were lots of factories around as well.
While his club team, Barcelona, is based in Spain, he stays faithful to his home country by playing for Argentina’s national team.
Messi’s father, Jorge Horacio Messi worked long, hard hours as a steelworker in one of the city’s numerous factories. His mother, Celia María Cuccittini, worked part-time cleaning people’s houses when she wasn’t looking after Lionel and his older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and his sister, María Sol.
Because his parents worked so hard, Messi and his family were able to live in a decent part of the city. It wasn’t the greatest neighborhood, but it was filled with families who looked out for each other’s children. As long as you stayed in the neighborhood, you were safe. Messi’s mother never had to worry about him.
“We lived in a nice, ordinary house in a neighborhood in the south of the city called Barrio Las Heras. It’s still my barrio,” Messi told author Tom Watt for a book he was writing about some of the world’s best soccer players. He added that the house still belongs to the family.
“I always go home to visit when I can and still see lots of the same friends.”
Soccer, or fútbol as it is known in Latin American countries, is the most popular sport in Argentina and throughout South America. Some of Messi’s earliest memories are of watching his older brothers and cousins—who lived nearby—play soccer.
There were no fields, or pitches, nearby and so they would often play in the street outside their home. Messi was too young to join in but would watch and sometimes beg and cry when they didn’t let him join. They were afraid he would get hurt because they were often playing against older boys themselves.
With his swift and agile moves, most of Messi’s opponents are left with “broken ankles.” This is when the person falls down because they can’t react to the quick change of direction.
The only thing Messi ever wanted as a child was his very own soccer ball. It was the first gift he can remember getting.
After that, it became the only present he ever asked for. It didn’t matter how many soccer balls he had, Messi always wanted another. It was the present he asked his parents for every Christmas, every birthday, or any other day where presents might be exchanged.
The funny thing is that Messi never took them outside to play! He simply wanted to collect them. He was afraid that they might get ruined if he played with them.
Even as a child, the ballhandling skills Messi had amazed coaches. Now that he is a professional, he continues to work on these skills so that he can remain the best.
It wasn’t long, however, before the young boy changed his mind. He was five years old when he first ventured outside with his very own soccer ball.
“I didn’t want to take them out in the street in case they burst or got damaged,” he told Tom Watt for his book. “After a while, though, I started taking them outside and actually playing (soccer) with them.”
A soccer field is called a pitch. There were no pitches to play on in Messi’s working-class neighborhood, but there was always a game to be found. Many times the children from that community would be right outside in the street, playing a game. The roads were not paved; they were dirt roads. It was better to play on a dirt road than on a paved road. It didn’t hurt as much if you fell down and the soccer balls would not get chewed up by the road.
Sometimes, when there were enough neighborhood kids to play a real game, the kids would sneak into an old abandoned army base in town. The base was known as the “Batallón.” Messi and his friends found a small hole in the fence that surrounded the old base, and they would carefully climb through and then spend hours playing on the wide-open grassy fields.
It was on those grassy fields on the army base that Messi discovered something wonderful. From a very early age, he had an amazing ability to keep the ball away from the other players. They would try and try, and still he was able to dribble the ball in and around anyone he wanted to.
His older brothers were afraid that these incredible ballhandling skills would make other boys jealous and angry. They often watched out for him to make sure no one tried to hurt him.
“I don’t really remember that, but it’s what my brothers have told me since,” Messi said.
They wouldn’t have to watch out for him for too long. Pretty soon, the little five-year-old with the great ballhandling skills would start amazing just about everyone who watched him play.