It is one of the most unlikely transfers of recent decades. While everyone expected to see him sign a new contract with his long-standing club FC Barcelona, Lionel Messi was forced to leave. He then quickly found a base for the less prestigious since he joined his great friend Neymar at Paris Saint-Germain. The 34-year-old Argentinian is having a little trouble getting back to his best, but when you know what stages he’s been through, it’s almost a miracle to see him play on the pitch today.
It is a story that fans of the player and football fans know but which is still relatively unknown to the general public. When he was still a child, Lionel Messi was not a very sociable person. He is rather shy and reserved but he is above all very small. At 10 years old, he is only 1.11 meters tall and doctors detect a hormonal disease which prevents it from growing. A real problem for a child who we already know very well with the round ball. He is also nicknamed el enano at the time, or “the dwarf” in Spanish.
One club able to pay for the treatment
So in the youth team at Newell’s Old Boys, an Argentinian club, he began to take synthetic hormone injections, a heavy and very expensive treatment without which he would not exceed 1.50 meters in adulthood! The treatment is funded by an Argentinian foundation, unfortunately the crisis affecting the country makes funding impossible and other Argentinian clubs are reluctant to pay for it. He will then find a club in Europe: FC Barcelona. The Catalans will take charge of the entire treatment, which will allow the one we now nickname the pulga (the chip) to reach 1.69 meters and become one of the best players in football history.