Leonardo Faccio - Messi: A Biography

Leonardo Faccio was born in Buenos Aires in 1971. He has spent the last ten years living in Barcelona, where he writes for various publications, including El Peridico and Etiqueta Negra, and received an honorable mention from the Gabriel Garca Mrquez Iberoamerican Foundation for New Journalism. He was not a fan of soccer until he first learned of Lionel Messi.

AN ANCHOR SPORTS ORIGINAL, SEPTEMBER 2012

English translation copyright 2012 by Anchor Books,
a division of Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in Spain as Messi by Mondadori, S.A., Barcelona, and in the United States by Vintage Espaol, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2011.
Copyright 2011 by Leonardo Faccio.

Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks and Anchor Sports is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

The Cataloging-in-Publication Data for Messi is available at the Library of Congress.

eISBN: 978-0-345-80270-5

www.anchorbooks.com

rh_3.1_140638711_c0_r2

To my father, Italo Faccio

And to Monica Porta Dominguez

Per obrir totes les portes.

(For opening all doors.)

CONTENTS

Lionel Messi has just returned from a Disney World vacation, dragging his flip-flops with that lack of glamour so typical of resting athletes. He could have continued his time off in Argentina or in any Caribbean country, but he opted to return to Barcelona early: Messi wants to train. Sometimes vacations bore him. Hes sitting on a chair in a deserted soccer field in the Ciutat Esportiva, FC Barcelonas sports center, which operates in a valley secluded from the residential area of the city, a bright cement-and-glass lab where coaches turn talented soccer players into precision machines. Messi is a player with no instruction manual, and Ciutat Esportiva is his incubator. He has agreed to give a fifteen-minute interview this afternoon, and he looks happy. After touring with his club through the United States, he spent some time at Disney World with his parents, siblings, uncles, cousins, nephews, and girlfriend. Disney had seen Messi as the perfect person to promote its world of illusions, and Messis entire family was given access to all the rides as long as he allowed himself to be filmed in the gardens within this cartoon empire. Today, on YouTube, we can see a smiling Messi, performing miracles with a soccer ball in front of the fantastical architecture of the park.

We had an amazing time, says Messi with enthusiasm. It finally happened.

What did you like most at Disney World?

The water rides, the parks, the attractions. Everything. Above all, I went for my nieces and nephews, my cousins, and my sister. But when I was a kid, I had always wanted to go.

Was it like a dream?

Yes, I think so, right? At least for kids fifteen and under, but also if youre a little older.

As we sit face-to-face at Ciutat Esportiva, Messi ponders each of his words before letting them out, as if every so often he needs to confirm that we have understood him, as if he were requesting permission to speak. As a child he suffered from a type of dwarfism, a growth hormone disorder, and since then, his short height has only magnified his soccer stature. Up close, Messi has that contradictory appearance of child gymnasts: legs with bulging muscles below, yet shy, inquisitive eyes above. Hes a warrior with a childs gaze.

However, at times, it inevitably feels as if one has come to interview Superman and is instead met by one of Disneys vulnerable and absentminded heroes.

Who is your favorite Disney character?

None in particular, because as a kid I didnt really watch many cartoons. He smiles. And then I came here to play soccer.

When Messi says the word ftbol, his smile disappears and he becomes as serious as if he were about to take a penalty kick. Its that cautious look we are so used to seeing on TV. Messi usually doesnt smile while he plays. The soccer business is too serious: Only twenty-five countries in the world produce a larger GDP than the soccer industry. It is the worlds most popular sport, and Messi is the star of the show. Months after his Disney World trip, hed achieve more than any other player his age ever has. He would go on to win six consecutive titles with FC Barcelona, becoming the European leagues top scorer; hed be chosen as the best soccer player in the world; hed establish himself as the youngest player to score one hundred goals in his clubs storied history; and hed become the sports highest-paid star, with an annual contract worth 10.5 million eurosten times what Diego Maradona earned while playing at Bara. Messi would fly to Zurich to accept Europes best soccer player award, the Ballon dOr, in a tailor-made Italian suit. But this afternoon, his bangs are parted to the side, he has a crooked smile, and hes wearing Baras fluorescent green jersey over a pair of training shorts. Hes one of the main hosts in soccers wheel of fortune, yet today he looks like an unkempt boy whos come to see the show.

After juggling a soccer ball at Disney World, Messi still had a few weeks of vacation left and decided to go back to the city where he was born. Rosario is located north of Buenos Aires, in Santa Fe Province. Its the third-largest city in Argentina and Che Guevaras birthplace. The newest soccer prodigy spent his time with childhood friends and at his parents home in the Las Heras neighborhood. However, a week before his vacation came to an end, he packed his bags and returned to Barcelona, where his dog, a boxer named Facha, always welcomes him home. Messi lives alone with this dog; his mother, father, and sister visit him during certain times of the year. The press wondered why a superstar soccer player would cut his vacation time, which is usually so scarce, short. Messi told them he returned early to train and stay in good shape. At the time, he was playing the qualifying rounds for the South Africa World Cup with Argentinas national soccer team. Maradona was his head coach, and Messi knew it could be his first World Cup in the starting lineup as number 10. He wanted to return to Barcelona to continue the show; plus he was bored in Rosario.

When I go to Rosario, I love it. I have my home, my people, everything. But it tires me because I dont do anything, he says with a shrug. I was just lounging around all day and that also gets boring.

Dont you watch TV?

I started to watch Lost and Prison Break, but they tired me out.

Why did you stop watching them?

Because something new was always going on, a new story line, and then someone else would tell me about it.

Messi gets bored with Lost.

Messi is left-handed.