Messi (28 page)

‘Don’t worry, Gaffer, nothing’s going to happen.’

He receives a pass from Frank Songo’o and scores. Soon after, he shows some individual skill and puts a shot past the advancing keeper. Goal. Two goals in ten minutes and, with a 3–0 lead at the interval, Alex García, fearful of tempting fate further, insists that he should be substituted. ‘Yes, Gaffer, I’m off now, I am off.’ But he’s still disappointed: he wants to carry on playing. Víctor Vázquez and Piqué, who is later sent off following a confrontation with
Espanyol coach Ramón Guerrero, score. The game finishes 4-1.

‘At the partido de la máscara, I found out that Messi understood football not only as a game but also as a collective effort that bases its laws on the respect you ought to have for your peers, your coach, and the sport, too. The effort he put into that match showed me that he was willing to do anything for us and him to win,’ says Alex García.

Although the international scouting system was far less developed and universal than it is today, it would have been impossible for the generation of ’87 not to have attracted admiring glances from foreign clubs. So it was that during the 2002−03 season the Cadete A side was followed closely by Arsenal who were looking to sign not just Cesc Fàbregas, but also Gerard Piqué and Leo Messi.

It all began with a game in Lloret de Mar against Parma. On that day Piqué didn’t play, but the rest of the gang, who had already won the game, did. Arsenal’s representative in Spain, Francis Cagigao was astonished: he had just witnessed something very different, and quite extraordinary, namely the control of Cesc and the talent of Leo. He spent that day, and many more, fruitlessly searching for the Argentinian’s agent. He came back to see Alex García’s side in the MIC tournament at Easter. While Barcelona were battling against a new rival, Cagigao was speaking on the telephone. ‘If only I could find someone who works with the Argentinian youngster …’ As he put the phone down one of Leo’s representatives in Spain, Horacio Gaggioli, who had overheard the conversation, approached him. ‘I believe you’re looking for me.’

That night Francis had dinner with the agent and expressed an interest in Messi, an interest that culminated in an offer being passed to the boy’s father, Jorge. From that moment the lines of communication between Arsenal and the Messis were open. Cesc and Piqué were also targets.

Cagigao’s report was unequivocal. Messi was a ‘little flea’ aged 15 with extraordinary qualities, although he still didn’t possess the power that he would later add to his game. He was intelligent with an extraordinary capacity for finishing. There were some doubts because of his lack of height, but they were easily outweighed by the quality of his playing.

Cagigao was one of the few, indeed, probably the only, European club scouts at these tournaments, so the offer from Arsenal was Leo’s first from a foreign club since he had arrived at Barcelona. The Messis listened to what Arsenal had to say but they were not about to have their heads turned. Obstacles were apparent in any potential agreement. The English club could not offer a flat for the family, and there would be difficulty obtaining a work permit. Bit by bit points of mutual interest evaporated until the offer lay dead in the water. But they left Jorge with a message: ‘Any time you encounter problems, remember, our club wants him.’

In any case, Arsenal had managed to secure the signings of Piqué and Cesc. Well, almost. Piqué travelled to London to see their training facilities, everything was agreed and confirmed, only for a legal matter to delay the process: he was not yet old enough to sign and Arsenal suggested that they should make a verbal agreement that would be confirmed in a year’s time, when he was 16. The same agreement that they worked out with Cesc. Piqué (or, to be precise, his agents) said no.

With the Catalonia championship in the bag, there only remained one barrier for the completion of a perfect season: the championship of Spain. Cesc knew that they were going to be his last games, that at 15 he was going to abandon the club of his life, his city, his people.

Alex García saw him crestfallen: ‘I asked him if he had some kind of personal problem, if it was a family matter. He told me that it had nothing to do with that, that he had had an offer from Arsenal and he was probably going to be leaving.’ He felt that with Xavi and Iniesta blocking his path, he had to go somewhere else to see whether or not he was good enough for this game.

‘Arsenal carried out negotiations in secret, although the deal did get as far as the head of junior football, Quimet Rifé,’ remembers Albert Benaiges. ‘But at that time there were many changes going on and there was a sort of power vacuum within the club caused by the change of board, just before the arrival of Joan Laporta. Arsenal ended up signing him.’

Cadete A also won the Spanish championship after beating Espanyol, Albacete, Atlético de Madrid and Athletic de Bilbao in the final. Messi was unable to play because of some bureaucratic problem:
the federation had listed him as ‘assimilated’ or, put another way, not Spanish, and non-nationals were not allowed in that competition despite having been allowed to compete in the league. Cesc, slotted into Leo’s position, was the best player of the competition. Piqué, Cesc and Leo would not be together on a pitch again until a summer night in 2011.

In September 2003 Cesc left Barcelona. In October the same year, with a new board in place, Barcelona signed Messi until 2012, with a buyout clause of €30 million, which would increase to €80 million if he got into the Barcelona B squad, and €150 million should he get into the first team.

‘It was during that time that I felt most alone,’ remembers Víctor Vázquez. ‘Cesc, Piqué, Songo’o were leaving. I went up into the Junior A, as did Messi, although he swiftly jumped into the Barça C side, where he played three or four games before moving up to the Barça B. His progression was much faster than the rest, it was spectacular. I stayed, on my own, well, not alone of course, there were the other team members, but the four I wanted to be with were no longer there. Thank God we carried on winning everything. It was still a good team. They had gone but I stayed, keeping the flag up for them! It was the best time of my career, we enjoyed ourselves, like children. Well, we were children, really.

‘I’m going to call my son Leo. It pleases me to give him that name. Not Leonel, not Leonardo, but Leo.’ Leo Vázquez.

Season 2003−04: Four levels in a year

‘Barça Dying for This Kid’ was the headline on the front page of the leading Argentinian newspaper
El Gráfico
in August 2003. Underneath it said: ‘He’s Argentinian and he’s destroying them all in the lower ranks. He left Newell’s at the age of 13, before dazzling Carles Rexach. He’s only 16 but they can already see him in the Barcelona first team and they are already comparing him with Maradona. Messi is pure
potrero
(an Argentinian word which loosely means “footballer developed in uneven pitches”): left-footed, skilful and a goalscorer.’

Diego Borinsky, journalist:

On 18 November 2003 the newspaper
El Mundo Deportivo,
a huge Spanish sports paper, published its first big story dedicated to Lionel Messi, at that time an emerging talent. The headline was ‘Star of the Future’. The photo accompanying the article: Leo playing infinite keepy-uppy with an orange that just wouldn’t fall to the ground in a hushed and expectant Camp Nou. It is an honour for me to have done that interview with Leo and to have defended the way it was published and appeared on the newsstands that day. Various voices had been raised saying that they thought it was an exaggeration. From then, until today, Lionel Messi, Leo as he prefers to be called, hasn’t stopped surprising the world with his touches and dribbles. The orange, his co-star at that time, now rests in a hermetically sealed jar.

The journalist Roberto Martínez does indeed, to this day, keep the now famous orange preserved in a hermetically sealed jar.

Joan Laporta was liberal with his smiles and hugs, à la Kennedy, as he entered his first weeks in charge of the club. Emerging from two decades of an obsolete and antiquated management style, it needed a complete overhaul, not least with regard to its finances. By June 2003 radical changes had been implemented: it modernised its image, restructured its finances and completely overhauled the infrastructure. It also ‘Catalanised’ its message and recycled the squad. Within two years Barcelona had turned itself into one of the most recognised and admired clubs in the world.

Laporta was the engine that drove through these changes, with the support of the God-like Johan Cruyff in the background and sporting vice-president, Sandro Rosell, who used his Brazilian contacts to bring in, first, Ronaldinho and then later a host of Brazilian footballers of class and personality. In that first season they brought in Ricardo Quaresma, Rafa Márquez, Gio van Bronckhorst and halfway through the season, Edgar Davids, who stabilised a strong, attacking line-up. Director of football Txiki Beguiristain and coach Frank Rijkaard made up the rest of the management line-up with a brief to get the very best out of a group of young and hungry footballers.

After a poor start, Rijkaard took his side to second place in a league won by Rafa Bénitez’s Valencia. Ronaldinho scored 25 goals in all competitions, although his influence was probably felt more off the pitch than on. His hypnotic effect on the fans, entranced by his huge smile and the surfing motion he used to make with his right hand, soon rekindled a new feeling among Barça supporters, once again proud of their team.

Sandro Rosell was also in charge of changing the staff at the academy. Joan Colomer replaced Quim Rifé in charge of the youth setup and his was the voice that would tell of the spectacular progress of a young Argentinian boy whom Rosell already knew from when he had worked with Nike, the first big brand to sponsor him.

That season began for Leo in June with the side for 16-year-olds that was coached by his fellow countryman Guillermo Hoyos, also a Newell’s fan and recently arrived at the club. Hoyos had never seen him close up. In their first day together, the training was light but Leo shone with the ball. After five minutes, Hoyos was staggered. ‘He was great!’

What would happen that season was something that had never been seen before at the Barcelona academy.

The Youth B side travelled to Japan to take part in the fourth edition of the Toyota International Youth Under 17 Football Championship. Their first opponents were the Dutch side Feyenoord. ‘We were losing by a goal to nil after a quarter of an hour,’ explains Hoyos in Toni Frieros’s book. ‘It was difficult for the team to get into the game … I saw that Leo was angry on the pitch, he started to ask for the ball and with half an hour played he did something astonishing, dribbling past four defenders and the goalkeeper before putting in the killer pass to Songo’o.’ Four games later, Leo was voted player of the tournament. Just as he was in the next tournament held in Sitges. And in the one at Sant Vicenç de Montalt. And at San Giorgio della Richinvelda in Italy. In that last one, the under-16 side scored 35 goals in five games of just 45 minutes’ duration. The only thing they conceded was one corner. But Leo missed a penalty in an earlier phase. ‘The goalkeeper will be able to say that he once saved a penalty taken by the best player in the world,’ says Guillermo Hoyos. There was another one in the final against Juventus. Leo demanded the ball. He scored. He practised penalties at training at
the request of Hoyos. It would serve him in good stead at a crucial stage in his career the following summer.

The coach, who identified Leo as a natural leader, although very quiet, gave him the captain’s armband. For a few games. ‘I’m choked up, Ángel, this kid is just like Diego.’ Ángel Alcolea was Hoyos’s assistant. And Diego … there’s only one Diego. In the pre-season with the Youth B, Leo lost just one game, against Real Madrid.

And it was at that moment that Pere Gratacós dispensed with one of the unwritten rules of the club in order to acquire the whirlwind that was Messi. His meeting with Leo was accidental but the consequences of it would be overwhelming.

Pere was the coach of the Barcelona B side that played in Spain’s Division Two B, three levels of the academy above the under-16s. Between the two were the under-17s, Barcelona C and then Gratacós’s side, the first one with professional contracts. In the pre-season, around about August, they shared a training pitch in the annexe of the Mini Stadium with the youth team. ‘Barça B took half of the pitch and the rest of it was shared out among two other teams,’ he recalled. ‘While my assistants were preparing what we were going to do, I was watching the youngsters, in particular Guillermo Hoyos’s team. And I saw a player taking part in a short football match. He was fast, electric, very active, he would get hold of the ball, dribble with it, score.’

Leo had an extra gear compared to the rest of the group but what really impressed Gratacós was his speed in the first few metres and his efficiency.

‘Our training started and I said to my people that I was going to watch these players for a bit longer and that I’d be along later. That day Leo scored a number of goals. When he finished I said to my assistant, Arseni Comas: “I have seen a player with the Juniors who I think is going to have to train with us.” And he said, “from what team?” And I said, “I think he’s from the under-16 side”, and he said to me “are you mad?” So I said to him, “Arseni, he is better than some of the players we have in Barça B at the moment. Follow him for a week and when you’ve finished, we’ll speak and decide.” At the end of that week he came up to me and said: “Pere, you know what? I think you’re right, he should train with us.”’

Gratacós and Comas went off to speak to director of the youth
set-up, Josep Colomer. They wanted him for the Barcelona B side. In that particular Junior side there were a couple of other players who were also outstanding, and Gratacós suggested that they should move up too, ‘more than anything to disguise Leo’s rise’. They were Oriol Riera and Jordi Gómez. ‘Are you nuts?’ Colomer asked them, but eventually he approved the decision, albeit with doubts over Leo’s physique and his ability to adapt at the new level, but nonetheless aware of his considerable progress. Just two months after coming under the control of Guillermo Hoyos, the 16-year-old Leo began to combine sporadic training sessions with Barcelona’s second team with playing and training for the Junior A side of Juan Carlos Rojo.