Messi Read Online Free Page B

one- and two-touch football. ‘We have to come with our own game, show you as you are.’ If he knew one thing it was how to dribble. While the rest of the group passed the ball around and obediently kept to their space, Messi offered something else.
    And so it went on. Day after day. He trained with the Junior A group, and at the end of training would play a game with the Junior B side. His father would watch him from the stands or leaning on the fence that separated the two pitches.
    One day he scored five goals and hit the post twice.
    He played for himself but did so with such conviction, with such talent, that it wasn’t worth trying to correct him. ‘One touch, Leo,’ shouted Rodo, but he was really reminding the rest of the group. ‘One, or, at the most, two touches.’ It didn’t matter what he was told. Leo played as he had always done, with little touches, with speed, with flow, dribbling right and left. A ball player more than a footballer – and there is a huge difference.
    Another day he scored six goals.
    Jorge wasn’t sure if the pressure was good or bad for his son. At some point a friend of Minguella suggested to him that he should reward Leo’s goals with presents. If there was a rucksack that he liked, some football boots, he would be given them in exchangefor goals, let’s say five. His father wasn’t sure it was going to work and preferred not to interfere. But the challenge motivated Leo. He scored four but one shot crashed against the woodwork and appeared to go in. No, no, it didn’t go in, he was told. Leo went crazy – it did go in! There was a complete set of sportswear at stake. A heated discussion followed. He eventually got the present.
    After the first week, the former Barcelona player Migueli, who was working in the youth ranks of the club, came round and asked: ‘Who’s the boy who has come from Argentina for a trial?’ Leo, who was training, was pointed out to him. ‘The little feller there, the one in the middle of the pitch.’ He looked at him. He had a ball on top of his left foot. He was awaiting instructions. ‘I don’t have to see him play football; just by the way he is standing you can see he is a good footballer.’ Just like that. Nothing more.
    He’d hit the nail on the head.
    It was late, around eight o’clock in the evening. Migueli continued watching the session. ‘What are these people doing that they haven’t signed him yet? This boy is the closest thing I have seen to Maradona.’ And he should know. Migueli, a former centre-back, played with Diego at Barcelona.
    But the days were passing and no one was saying anything to Jorge. Nor to Leo. They were waiting for a decision from Rifé and the return of Rexach, who was still away.
    But they had to get back to Argentina; they had already lost too many schooldays. Jorge insisted that they could not be away for more than a week. It was now the eighth day.
    Something wasn’t right.
    There is one thing in the Messi mythology that has been misinterpreted. It’s said that some of the Barcelona coaches were not convinced of his talent, uncertain about signing him, would say one thing to his face and another behind his back. Their names are mentioned sotto voce because some of them are still at the club. Others have developed successful careers away from the Camp Nou that might be damaged if this was to be revealed. Rexach’s interpretation of the situation further confuses the issue. ‘There was your typical guy who would say: well, he’s too small, the sort of bloke that should play indoor football, a table football player … the usual stuff!’
    But in truth, the trial was going well. More than well; it was also decisive. Just five minutes at one of the training sessions was enough to show his talent. From a coaching point of view Charly Rexach’s appearance at pitch two or three to watch Messi was hardly necessary either. He had no need to make the casting vote.
    But in the end Rexach had to be convened