Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini had an interview recently and the Argentina legend has opened up about so many things – one of which he talks about his birth.
Messi sat down with Jorge Valdano for an interview on his show ‘Universo Valdano’.
On his birth, he said:
“My parents expected a girl. My dad was convinced that I would be a girl. They had a name chosen and everything.”
On his childhood, he recalled:
“I was lazy at school, it was difficult. I was a good kid, for sure. They would punish me by not lotting me play football and that forced me to be good at school.I was about seven or eight when I went to watch Newell’s at the stadium.
“I started playing there when I was eight years old until twelve since it was eleven-a-side. My treatment started when I was eleven. It was an expensive treatment and my dad did what he could to finance it. It was difficult.
“I did a trial at River Plate and they told me to come back. They said they would pay for the treatment but I had to get Newell’s to let me go. I didn’t even try as I knew it was impossible.”
He concluded by saying “I have grown up with the ball ever since I was able to think. I used to always play with my siblings, cousins, older people. In the neighbourhood, I used to love playing.
“I wanted to play with my brothers and they didn’t let me. I used to get annoyed, I used to fight over it. I spent my childhood on the street.
Today that’s difficult. It was football, all the time.”
