by Luca Caioli
28 August 2009, Stade Louis II, Monaco. UEFA Super Cup: Barcelona-Shakhtar Donetsk
‘Leo left it to me. The assist was practically a goal, I just had to tap it in,’ says Pedro Eliezer Rodríguez Ledesma, better known as Pedrito. He is a 22-year-old Brazilian player, and Barcelona’s number 17. He arrived at Barcelona as a boy of fifteen, and is one of eight called upon by Pep Guardiola for the seemingly endless UEFA Super Cup match. The eternal reserves player just signed his first professional contract with Barça on 20 August; he is the striker who won the Champions League after only playing one minute of football and without even touching the ball. Well … in the 81st minute Pedrito comes on for Zlatan Ibrahimovi´c and in the 115th, after a back-and-forth with Messi, he finds the perfect angle, the gap just by Pyatov’s goalpost, in order to draw a line under a gruelling match and win Barça their fifth cup of the season. But in reality, and with great humility, the little Brazilian recognises that the credit belongs to Messi. It has not been an easy match. The strategy designed by Mircea Lucescu, the sly dugout veteran, is working. The defence organised by the Romanian coach blocks successive attacks by Guardiola’s men. They have to wait until half an hour into the game before seeing their first result. After a free kick, Leo, dribbling quickly and craftily, sees his shot blocked twice by the Ukrainian goalkeeper. But the Barça number 10 and his teammates never tire of looking for the gaps, undeterred by the fact that Lucescu’s men turn the counterattack into their greatest weapon.
And here goes Leo Messi again, free kick just on the edge of the area. The ball is intercepted on its arc by the players in the wall. Leo and the other Blaugrana players protest. They demand a penalty. According to them, a defender has blocked the ball with his elbow. The first half ends and in the second half things are not much different. On the Stade Louis II pitch, in terrible conditions, the scoreline does not budge. The nerves are starting to show – so much so that after breaking away into the area only to end up in a tangle of opponents, Leo pushes a Shakhtar defender and finds himself head to head with Darijo Srna – an offence that earns him a caution.
There are five minutes of extra time remaining, five minutes until penalties, when Leo creates a brilliant pass to Pedrito. It is shot number 21 for Barça, and it is the victory shot. The Brazilian kicks it with his right while falling to the ground and sends this Barça team on their way to being legendary. It is the goal that brings Pep’s team in line with Barça’s five-cup team: the magnificent team made up of Ramallets, Martín, Biosca, Seguer, Gonzalvo III, Bosch, Basora, César, Vila, Kubala and Manchón. In the 1951–52 season, coach Ferdinand Daucik won La Liga, the Copa de España, the Copa Latina, the Copa Eva Duarte (named after Evita) and the Copa Martini & Rossi. It’s a team that lives on in the collective memory of the Blaugrana fans. Although, if truth be told, that group, led by Ladislao Kubala, won three titles on the pitch and the other two without playing. They did not play the Copa Duarte (which is today the Spanish Super Cup), since they were both Liga and Copa del Rey champions, and the Copa Martini & Rossi was the cup given to the team that scored the most league goals. By contrast, Leo’s Barça have won all five cups on the pitch. All that remains is the FIFA Club World Cup, in December, to complete the set and break all the records. It will be the final chapter in the incredible Blaugrana saga.
But man cannot live on trophies and cups alone … although, for Messi, football is very important. But first and foremost are his family, both present, and perhaps … future. On this note, this year more than others, Leo has had his ups and downs. He has been extremely preoccupied with regard to the health of one family member (luckily everything has been resolved, it was a big scare and nothing more), but he has also been lucky enough to spend almost two months with his family. ‘They were all here in Castelldefels, my uncles and aunts, my cousins, and it’s always lovely when the house is full of family,’ says Leo. And there’s more: he has begun a romantic relationship. He admits to it on 25 January 2009 on Hat Trik, a Catalan TV programme. In front of the cameras, a boy asks him the most difficult question: ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ And, after sticking out his tongue, he replies: ‘I have a girlfriend and she’s in Argentina. The truth is, I’m OK and I’m calm about it.’ On 22 February, a month after his TV interview, he is seen in the streets of Sitges with his arm around a tanned girl with long hair. It kick-starts the race between the tabloids to find out the identity of the mystery girlfriend. She is the first official one after all the supposed squeezes attributed to him by the Argentine tabloids. Like the Rosario model Macarena Lemos, before the 2006 World Cup, or eighteen-year-old Nerina, or the Argentine sex bomb Luciana Salazar.
Antonella Roccuzzo is a nineteen-year-old from Rosario, she is a Newell’s fan, she studies nutrition and she is nothing like any of the fantasies concocted by the tabloids. ‘I have known her since I was five, she is the cousin of my best friend (Luca Scaglia), and she’s a Rosarina like me. I have seen her grow up and she has seen me grow up. Our families know each other, so I didn’t have any doubts,’ Leo tells Buenos Aires newspaper Clarín in May. He says that they have been in a relationship for a year. He has managed to keep it a secret because ‘I’m discreet,’ he says, adding: ‘and if we hadn’t decided to walk through Sitges during the carnivals, nobody would have known.’ But the news is official and the two are photographed again in June in Buenos Aires, where Argentina are playing two qualifying matches for the South Africa World Cup. There is a family photo taken in the city streets, with Antonella arm-in-arm with Celia, Leo’s mother. Marriage on the horizon?
No. ‘I’m not getting married for the moment,’ declares Leo. But the romance continues. We will wait … Leo has all he needs in order to keep both them and future generations comfortable: on 18 September 2009, he renews his contract with Barcelona for the fourth year running. He will receive more than 10 million euros a year – the highest amount for any Blaugrana footballer, and his buyout clause is increased from 150 to 250 million euros. A new contract that will terminate on 30 June 2016, when the Flea will be 29 years old. The future is guaranteed. All that is missing is the cherry on the cake of the happiest year of his life: the Ballon d’Or and the title of best player in the world. ‘A dream. The best you can achieve as an individual,’ as he says in an interview with L’Equipe TV. ‘Who is your favourite for this year?’ they ask him. ‘I hope that this year it will be my turn.’
Chapter 36
Third time lucky
1, 19 and 21 December 2009
Yes – this time, it is his turn. This time, the saying ‘third time lucky’ comes true. After coming third in 2007 and second in 2008, Lionel Andrés Messi wins France Football magazine’s 2009 Ballon d’Or. And he wins it by a mile – Messi gets 473 out of a possible 480 points, more than double the score of Cristiano Ronaldo, the runner-up, who is awarded 233 points. Xavi Hernández comes in third with 173 points. Ninety of the award’s 96 voters vote for Leo as their number one player; and with 98.54 per cent of the maximum number of points possible, nobody in the 54-year history of this prestigious prize has won it as convincingly or unanimously as Messi. Only Michel Platini, who won it in 1984 with 98.46 per cent of the possible points, has come close. It is a true triumph. According to the editor-in-chief of France Football, Denis Chaumier, there are three reasons for his success:
1.Messi’s coups de théâtre, his dribbling, his acceleration, his efforts to destabilise the opposition, his talent, his creative spirit and his sense of teamwork, along with some of his goals, have made a profound impression throughout the year. His influence within football is still not complete, but what I find marvellous is the fact that the sheer joy and impertinence of his presence on the pitch resemble those of a certain Maradona.
2.We shouldn’t forget that despite his young age, Messi has been among the contenders for the Ballon d’Or several times. Clearly, modern football will not give its highest honour to a flash in the pan, even one as impressive as Messi.
3.Messi is champion o
f Europe, of La Liga with Barcelona, winner of the European Super Cup and the Copa del Rey, and with the Argentine side has qualified for the final stages of the World Cup. It is hard to imagine a more remarkable run of achievements.
All sides are united in agreement on Messi’s records, performances, talent, class and professional career. The journalists of France Football’s international voting panel have all bowed to the Flea. Tributes have poured in from around the world: from Japan to Iceland, from Ghana to New Zealand, from Kazakhstan to England. Describing his reasons for voting for Messi, the Daily Telegraph journalist Henry Winter writes in France Football:
Messi? Pure genius. He has a special relationship with the ball. He creates and scores goals, and works ceaselessly for the good of the team. To see him play is to witness a marvellous spectacle that greatly benefits the beautiful game.
It is 7.00pm on Monday 30 November 2009 when France Football’s representatives knock on the door of Messi’s chalet in Castelldefels to deliver the good news. Leo has been awaiting this news with impatience and excitement, along with his girlfriend Antonella, his brother Rodrigo and his niece and nephew. When the France Football director tells him that he has won the award he responds with his usual timid smile, but his eyes are sparkling.
The announcement comes at the end of a fantastic week for both Leo and Barça. On Tuesday 24 November, in the fifth match of the Champions League, the Blaugrana, with Piqué and Pedro, ‘achieved an angelic victory over José Mourinho’s Inter in a devilish match’, in the words of El País. Up until now the task of getting into the last sixteen seemed a very difficult one for Guardiola’s men, but now it is within their reach. Messi was unable to play in that match as he had sustained a muscular injury while playing Athletic Bilbao at San Mamés on the final match day of La Liga, but on Sunday 29 November he is in the starting line-up for the classic derby against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid. This is the fourth time that the two superstars have met. The Portuguese player, who has been out of competition for more than 50 days, shows excellent form in the 66 minutes that he spends on the pitch. He leads the Madrid attack, but misses the best chance that the Whites get. His shot is turned away by Valdés, and for the fourth time he fails to score against Barça. Messi appears very little in the first half; he does not create play and his contribution is not decisive. He plays in the hole, behind the forwards but without his usual craftiness. However, in the second half, after Ibrahimovi´c puts Barça ahead with an unstoppable left-footed shot and Busquets gets a red card, the Flea is once again at his best. He receives passes, brings others into play, asks questions of the Madrid defence, helps neutralise their attacks and invents two or three ingenious pieces of play. He contributes a great deal to the team just when they need it most. In the 88th minute he is in a position to make it 2-0. Alves crosses it into the centre from the right wing and Lionel shoots point-blank, which the incredible Casillas saves. It would have been a great pleasure for Messi to score his eighth goal against the Madrid keeper – his last one was a penalty in the friendly between Spain and Argentina on 14 November – but, as he says in his post-match interview, ‘it was not to be, because of Casillas’ great save. The most important thing is that Barcelona won.’ And in reply to any questions about the Ballon d’Or, he replies: ‘This afternoon Victor Valdés deserves the Ballon d’Or. He saved us.’ This may be true, but Lionel has won his showdown with the 2008 winner of the award, Cristiano Ronaldo. The match was the perfect scenario for the baton to be passed on.
So, on this Monday in Castelldefels there is more than enough reason to celebrate. Wearing a green-and-white sweatshirt, Leo joins his family and the guests from France Football as they drink a toast to the boy who couldn’t grow, and to his entry into the pantheon of world football. Afterwards, there is time to talk and to look at the front page – and 43 other pages – that the magazine has dedicated to this ‘Young King of Football’.
The next day sees more front pages devoted to Messi, a huge press conference and interviews.
It is a time for reflection, for hearts on sleeves and for dedications. ‘I cannot lie – I had a feeling that it could happen this year – but the results of the ballot surprised me,’ says Messi in the Nou Camp press room. ‘This prize is an honour; it is wonderful and very special, but I wasn’t obsessed with winning it. I knew that if it was meant to happen it would, but either way I would keep on working in the same way as always,’ he explains. Someone asks him how he feels about being the first Argentine player to win it. ‘It’s a great honour. Of course, under the modern rules Diego [Maradona] would have won it more than once – and Di Stéfano and Sivori both won it, albeit under different nationalities.’ (We should remember that it is only since 1995 that the Ballon d’Or was opened up to any footballer who played for a European club, regardless of where he was from. Alfredo Di Stéfano, who was born in Buenos Aires, won it in 1957 and 1959 with Spanish nationality and Omar Sivori, who won it in 1961, did so with Italian nationality despite having been born in San Nicolás.)
And since Leo belongs to Barça as much as he does to Argentina, he does not forget how valuable the prize is to his ‘home’ team: ‘The fact that I am the first footballer trained in the Barça youth academy to win this award really helps the “Barça project”, and is very important for both the club and the people who work at the club.’ As always, though, he thanks his family and his teammates and dedicates the award to them. ‘Without them, I would not have won it,’ he says emphatically. He adds that if he had been on the voting panel, he would have voted for one of his teammates: ‘Xavi and Iniesta deserved this prize as well,’ he says. He especially acknowledges Pep Guardiola, saying: ‘The boss had a lot to do with it. I knew him from Barça B but had never had direct contact with him. I believe he is a very intelligent man with a huge knowledge of football, and that he has the ability to transmit this knowledge to others in the best possible way. He is a coach who recognises the human side of his players, and because of this they all love him. The titles we have won with him have been key to this award.’
The Barça coach replies: ‘Leo is the rightful winner because as a player he is simply on another level. He has everything – he is tough, quick, scores goals even with his head [and who would dare to argue with this after the goal he scored in this way in the Champions League final?] – he understands the game and dominates all the records. But the difference with Leo is in his head, in his competitive spirit.’
And the boss is not the only one who is full of praise. On 1 December the whole world is talking about ‘the boy who became a legend’.
The best footballer of 2009 is crowned on 6 December 2009 at 11.00am, on the set of the French football television programme Téléfoot. This is where Denis Chaumier hands over the golden ball trophy in person. But the day before the ceremony, Messi has a match to play against Deportivo de La Coruña, in the Riazor stadium. The Flea celebrates his prize with two goals and some spectacular play. The spectators in the old Galician stadium shout ‘Messi, Messi, Messi!’ At midnight, after a 3-1 victory, Lionel goes into the changing room for a quick shower, as a private plane waits to take him to Paris Le Bourget airport. His flight lands in the French capital at 3.15am, and a car transports him to the Hotel George V in the eighth arrondissement. It’s now 4.00am, but Lionel doesn’t sleep; he spends the rest of the night listening to music (to be specific, Don Omar and DJ Flex), watching TV and chatting with his brothers Rodrigo and Matías and his sister, María Sol.
At 9.30am, the Parisian victory tour begins. Messi parades round the city, wearing a suit, tie and make-up, and stops in front of the Eiffel Tower before going into the television studio, where he is greeted by his former Barça teammate Lilian Thuram. Then he is installed in front of the cameras for applause, speeches and finally the presentation of the trophy. After that there is a photo session with his family, friends and Barça president Joan Laporta, as well as people from the club, France Football and the French TV channel TF1. The official c
ar picks him up and crosses Paris again, heading towards TF1’s headquarters at Boulogne-Billancourt. But before Messi can have lunch in the Louis XIII salon of the Hotel George V and return home, he has to give one last press conference. It is now that Leo, sitting on a stool, confesses that he was a little bit impatient to receive the award, to lift the Ballon d’Or. Because six days can feel like a very long time. And he also surprises those present by admitting: ‘I would love to win it again; it would be magnificent to win one more.’
Well, the boy has a lot of faith in himself, but we’ll soon see. In the meantime, Barça have other challenges ahead. The first: ensuring they go through to the Champions League final sixteen. A very difficult match awaits Pep’s men in Kiev. It is below zero degrees and Shevchenko and his teammates are still convinced that they can go through. It’s true that the Blaugrana have two useful results: they could lose by a goal or they could need to draw, depending on what happens at the Giuseppe Meazza in Milan where Inter and Rubin Kazan are playing at the same time as they are. But the main objective is to qualify first in the group to avoid the English superpowers: Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. ‘It’s forbidden to speculate,’ declares Guardiola, demanding that his players respect team etiquette and aim only for the victory. It will not be easy, because Dynamo go ahead after two minutes at the V. Lobanovskiy stadium, due to an error in the Catalan defence. Everything becomes complicated in the worst possible way: the 2008–09 champions are only one goal away from being knocked out. But Barça do not fall apart, they keep the ball from the Ukrainians, they push ahead without stopping, until they manage first to equalise (thanks to Xavi), and then to claim victory. It is sealed by Leo with a fantastic goal from a free kick. They have been pounding on Messi continually. He had the opportunity to equalise early on, but he wasn’t able to take advantage of the bad clearance gifted to him by Shovkovskiy, and in the scuffle ended up losing his nerve in the area. Direct free kick in the 86th minute. It is the Flea who steps up to the ball: majestic execution, left-footed shot hammered into the back of the net. What a shame that four minutes later Almeida tackles him from behind – the ninth time he has been fouled – and he falls to the ground, injured.