Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Argentina. His paternal family comes from the Italian city of Ancona, where his ancestor, Angelo Messi, emigrated to Argentina in 1883.He has two older brothers named Rodrigo and Matías as well as a sister named Maria Sol.At the age of five, Messi started playing football for Grandoli, a local club coached by his father Jorge.In 1995, Messi switched to Newell's Old Boys who were based in his home city Rosario. At the age of 11, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency.Primera División club River Plate showed interest in Messi's progress, but did not have enough money to pay for the treatment, as it cost $900 a month.Carles Rexach, the sporting director of Barcelona, had been made aware of his talent as Messi had relatives in Lleida, Catalonia, and Messi and his father were able to arrange a trial.Barcelona signed him after watching him play,offering to pay for the medical bills if he was willing to move to Spain.His family moved to Europe and he started in the club's youth teams.
He made his official debut for the first team in a friendly match against Porto on 16 November 2003.Less than a year later, Frank Rijkaard let him make his league debut against Espanyol on 16 October 2004, becoming the third-youngest player ever to play for Barcelona and youngest club player who played in La Liga.When he scored his first senior goal for the club against Albacete on 1 May 2005, Messi was 17 years, 10 months and 7 days old, becoming the youngest to ever score in a La Liga game for Barcelona until 2007 when Bojan Krkić broke this record, scoring from a Messi assist. Messi said about his ex-coach Rijkaard: "I never forget that Rijkaard has launched me. That he gave me confidence as I only sixteen, seventeen years was."
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario