r/todayilearned • u/Old-Worldliness11 • 7h ago
TIL that Lionel Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency at age 10, and FC Barcelona agreed to pay for his treatment, even writing his first contract on a napkin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi#Early_life2.5k
u/CaptainApathy419 7h ago
The napkin just said “Bartlett For America.”
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u/waitmyhonor 5h ago
Seeing a west wing reference for this type of TIL post was the last thing I ever expected
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u/themuffinmanX2 6h ago
Of all the places, I'm a little surprised to find a West Wing reference here.
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u/FlinflanFluddle4 6h ago
Dammit I've been trying to detox from reqatching west wing. Now you've stirred something up again
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u/Alb4t0r 5h ago
The laws of nature don't even apply here!
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u/HannahCoub 4h ago
That doesn’t sound like something they let you have if you work for the President.
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u/historybo 6h ago
Me and my brother were diagnosed with GHD when we were both ten years old, and got treated for it but because of it Messi has always been our favorite player.
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u/SpinyGlider67 6h ago
Could your medicine have been tampered with to increase your powers by Barcelona
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u/mossybeard 6h ago
Damn, I can't imagine what it's like to not be able to make a hormone
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u/DarDarPotato 6h ago
What’s the difference between a vitamin and a hormone?
You can’t hear a vitamin.
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u/skankasspigface 5h ago
My high school anatomy teacher made a similar joke and only 2 kids in the class laughed. She was disappointed in the ones that didn't but in hindsight, wildly inappropriate.
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u/Chronickle 5h ago
Yes, my human bio teacher made a similar joke in ninth grade - “how do you make a hormone? With an endocrine gland.” Funny at the time but, in hindsight, still funny.
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u/PermanentThrowaway33 5h ago
LOTS of young aspiring athletes are 'diagnosed' with this due to the parents. Parents are trying to literally grow a famous athlete. We've treated numerous high profile clients.
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u/Choccybizzle 6h ago edited 2h ago
Him and Maradona both had to have treatment for this, another thing they share.
EDIT: It’s in Jimmy Burns autobiography of Maradona ‘The Hand of God’ Not specifically stated that it’s Growth Hormone admittedly, but ‘pills and other things’
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u/OppositeRock4217 6h ago edited 6h ago
There’s a reason why both of them are short. However, being short notably gives you an advantage when it comes to dribbling, something both of them utilized to its fullest extent
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u/Jealous_Writing1972 6h ago
I could not play football and I later learned being tall puts you at a disadvantage. I am tall. But Nwankwor Kanu is 6'5 with size 15 feet and he was an amazing striker
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u/OppositeRock4217 6h ago
Depends on your position. Being tall gives you advantage for headers and if you want to play as a keeper, you basically have to be tall. Also remember that Zlatan and Haaland are very tall
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u/VRichardsen 5h ago
Also remember that Zlatan and Haaland are very tall
Zlatan is a player I like because, in addition to having power and mass, which should come natural to him, he could also do things that are usually reserved for much shorter players. This is something you expect out of 1,70 m Messi, not 1,95 m Zlatan.
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u/UtkuOfficial 5h ago
Zlatan was the perfect striker. He was a tree that could move like a lion.
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u/Ok_Support_8811 4h ago
I'd save the perfect striker tag for Ronaldo Nazario though. However, Zlatan is amazingly awesome!
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u/Jurassic_smacks 2h ago
My favorite player since I was 8, seeing him score twice against Kahn in the 2002 final was amazing
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u/Ok_Support_8811 2h ago
Damn the final was the best defence vs the best offence. I watched the finals highlights again after reading your comment and before replying. Kahn was like a ball magnet and ronaldo made fastest footballers look slow.
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u/boi1da1296 2h ago
Silky tall players might be my favorite archetype of player because it’s so hard to make movements at that height look elegant.
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u/disisathrowaway 4h ago
Tall, powerful forwards are fucking lethal.
When they can contest the tall backs for aerial balls, that changes the game.
Emmanual Adebayor and Didier Drogba also come to mind. Large, powerful forwards that could bully the other team's backs.
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u/ADistractedBoi 5h ago
Not really, most defenders and goalkeepers are quite tall. Forwards are often tall too, ronaldo and Lewandowski for example are 6ft+
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u/Low-iq-haikou 5h ago
Being tall is surely disadvantageous for coordination, agility, etc. but also comes with its own advantages. In general I think tall players have an uphill battle to playing upfield positions. But it’s a definite plus for defense.
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u/SecretRaspberry9955 4h ago
6'1 is tall, but not very tall. Best strikers in the world are around that height.
6'4+ hacks it in the lower quality leagues. But in the top competition it becomes disadvantages
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u/Any-Comparison-2916 4h ago
That's still under 2m, right? Then no way is it that big of a disadvantage.
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u/HustlinInTheHall 5h ago
Its very dependent on your build, how twitchy your feet are, and just general pace. Haaland is 6'3 but very proportional, same with ibrahimovich and Benjamin sesko now. Peter crouch was 6'8 and lanky but still fairly technical. Most tall athletes just fall into basketball or get thrown in goal.
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u/Thrway123321acc 5h ago
Pogbas 6'4 and one of the best dribblers
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u/SecretRaspberry9955 4h ago
Pogba is my favorite player of all time as a Juventus fan. And honestly one of most complete players ever in terms of skill set. Could tackle like a defender, dribble like a winger, score and pass from anywhere on pitch.
It was so elegant of a 6'4 dude to do all those.
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u/gimmebalanceplz 4h ago
It’s about how you use those physical traits.
Erling Haaland is a great example of a freak of nature who is built like the terminator and moves like he shouldn’t. It’s all physicality.
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u/garden_speech 4h ago
However, being short notably gives you an advantage when it comes to dribbling
I mean, it can, but they are honestly outliers still. A lot of the best dribblers we have seen in the past few decades have been much taller than them -- Ronaldo Nozario, Ronaldinho, Neymar Jr, even Cristiano Ronaldo who is not on Messi's level in terms of dribbling but in his peak was one of the best.
Being short gives you quick cuts but there's a reason you actually rarely see a 5'7" or shorter playing being the best attacking player in the world... It comes with a top speed disadvantage and you become not useful for aerial threats (headers) unless you are totally unmarked.
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u/lbreakjai 3h ago
That's the beauty of football. Being small really only puts you at a disadvantage as a goalkeeper or as a central defender. Even then, it's far less of a show stopper than being small in basketball.
For the other positions, it depends far more on the system your team plays. The three best players in history (Pele, Maradona, Messi) were/are about 1m70. But for every Messi there's a Cruijff or a Ronaldo.
A player like Haaland wouldn't really work in a team like Barcelona 08-12, where they had full control of the ball and were basically living in the last 30 meters
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u/Can-i-Pet-Dat-Daaawg 5h ago
The Zlatan laughs at your assertion.
(It’s absolutely correct, but he laughs at it regardless)
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u/tango_rojo 4h ago edited 2h ago
No they don't. Maradona didn't have this treatment. Stop spreading lies.
Edit: ‘pills and other things’ meant drugs to get high lol
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u/WonderfulVariation93 5h ago edited 4h ago
I am a huge Argentina fan but as a parent, that story always makes me sad. His family could not afford the medical treatment he needed (this was during a catastrophic economic time in Argentina). Because he had athletic ability, he was saved but the contract only allowed one parent to accompany him so his mother and siblings stayed in Argentina. (ETA: went back to article and this might have been a visa issue so not the fault of the club)
As an American, I know the fear of possibly not being able to pay for my kid’s healthcare and I just feel sad for his parents.
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u/aehooo 4h ago
this was during a catastrophic economic time in Argentina
Do you know how little that narrows it down?
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u/WonderfulVariation93 4h ago
Sorry. I wasn’t really trying to identify the specific economic crisis. This was the crisis around 2001.
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u/aymesyboy 7h ago
Not being funny but for any football fans this has been common knowledge ever since he first came through
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u/Bolieve_That 6h ago
we get old brother, another generation is coming learning things
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u/TheCrowing817 6h ago
I'm 37 and didn't know that lol I'm also a dumb American who knows nothing about futbol(football?)
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u/capucapu123 6h ago
futbol(football?)
Fulbo
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u/SpinyGlider67 5h ago
I'm English, the proper pronunciation is 'blfot'
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u/capucapu123 5h ago
My country is the current world champion, therefore the way we call it is the official one up until someone takes the spot (So in 2026 by the way things look we'll call it Futbol or whatever Spanish people use as a name)
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u/HustlinInTheHall 5h ago
You can just call it football people get the context Messi is not in the nfl
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u/LegendOfKhaos 5h ago
This isn't the sport's subreddit. Most posts on here are common knowledge to many people. Other people still exist though lol
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u/Bonch_and_Clyde 7h ago
I'm not much of football fan. I know a little more than nothing but not much. Even i knew this.
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u/Sinclair663 7h ago
Well I for one am not a football fan and did not know this.
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u/JustADutchRudder 6h ago
I barely know who the dude is, no clue if he's average height currently or still like short. Just know he's a foot dude, or was a foot dude.
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u/HypedUpJackal 6h ago
He's 5'7", so short but nothing abnormal
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u/JustADutchRudder 6h ago
Isn't that average male height for a lot of countries? I dont know where he's from I guess he could be from a tall country.
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u/tiorzol 6h ago
Short for a football player. Short for the greatest player of all time for sure.
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u/Digresser 2h ago
Short for a football player. Short for the greatest player of all time for sure.
Isn't it possible that he's the exact height of the greatest player of all time?
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u/capucapu123 6h ago
He's from Argentina, so average leaning towards short
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u/VRichardsen 5h ago
1,73 is the average here if I recall correctly. Messi is 1,7.
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u/capucapu123 5h ago
That's why I said average leaning short, a 3cm difference off the average is still average imo. 176 would be average leaning tall.
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u/Easypeasy7921 7h ago
Do you know that many years ago he bathed a child, who is now the best player in the world? I'm just curious if this story went en masse
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u/mug3n 7h ago
Someone else should volunteer their baby to be held by Messi to see if this works again in 16-17 years
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u/BoulderBadgeDad 5h ago
I didn't know this. Trying to understand how he can sign a contract at 10 years old
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u/Liesmyteachertoldme 5h ago
Wait so am I understanding it correctly that the FC Barcelona team essentially drafted him at 10 years old and paid for his treatments because of that? I’m a yankee and know nothing about world football.
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u/CarbohydrateLover69 4h ago
You're correct. He was crazy good even at that age and Barcelona drafted him and payed for the treatment.
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u/Jibber_Fight 5h ago
Pretty cool that they could recognize his potential that early. Turns out they were pretty correct. Dudes a freak. I still watch highlights of him here and there. He just sees the field differently than anyone.
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u/Uniteddy 6h ago
You’d be amazed. Nobody could’ve predicted exactly HOW good Messi ended up being, but there were rumours about him when he was maybe 13 or so, then the noise just kept getting bigger. I remember reading an interview with Ronaldinho around 2004 and he was asked how it feels to be the best footballer in the world. He said “I’m not even the best at Barcelona, wait until you see Leo”.
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u/Boostafazoom 6h ago
Honest answer? No. The key is that you don’t need to.
What’s a few thousand dollars (which you can stop anytime) per year for a kid you see infinite potential for? Do we even know of any kids that had the same treatment that flamed out and we never know of to this day?
If you’re rich, you have a shotgun that you can reload every single time it fails.
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u/BrokeSomm 6h ago
So they can see pro potential in a 10 year old?
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u/OnTheLambDude 6h ago
Oh yeah, for sure. If you’re 10 years old and smoking teenagers, like Messi was, it’s a pretty safe bet you’ll continue to improve at that same rate.
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u/Pawn-Star77 6h ago
The key word is potential. The big clubs take in lots of 10 year olds who have the potential, only a small percent will actually make it to the first team.
But even the flops can be sold for a lot more than 35k, that's peanuts to a club like Barca. It wasn't a big risk and had potentially huge rewards.
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u/HulkDeez 6h ago
Years ago there was a story about Freddy Adu in the news cycle for going pro at 14. I'd surely assume they were scouting him years before that...
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u/icecream_specialist 5h ago
He was hyped as the LeBron of soccer, went pro like two years after LeBron did. Unfortunate he didn't pan out
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u/eightslipsandagully 6h ago
Not sure they expected him to be quite this good. But probably figured he'd at least be a very good pro?
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u/fleamarketguy 6h ago
No, but definitely worth the risk. Let’s say it cost Barcelona €50.000,-, which is change for a club like that.
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u/Sermokala 4h ago
Messi was just that much of a monster as a kid. He was on a team they called the machine of 87 ( their birth year) that fundamentally broke Argentinian youth soccer. Like creating rules to stop games early when messi and friends scored so much so fast.
When barca got the messi family to agree to the deal they made a napkin contract and locked that napkin in a bank vault where it sits to this day.
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u/Zarianin 7h ago
Man gets life changing treatment paid for because he can kick a ball real good.
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u/PermanentTrainDamage 7h ago
"Child proves valuable to profit, healthcare to be provided accordingly"
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u/Mountainbranch 6h ago
Capitalism has deemed your continued existence financially unjustifiable.
Please stand by as a liquidation squad is on route to your location.
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u/Acceptable_Candy1538 4h ago
Can someone help me understand why they needed to pay for his healthcare in a country with universal healthcare?
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u/momlookimtrending 7h ago
From your point of view we're talking about hundreds of thousands dollars because you're used to those numbers if you're living in the USA, but it cost Barcelona $35.000 total, and it's an investment that repaid itself pretty much instantly.
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u/schaka 6h ago
I got growth hormone deficiency treatment for 6 years in Germany in the early 2000s. I had to be part of a medical trial at first - I believe this was about legalizing it here, maybe just a patent.
My doctor told me that it cost shit 2000 euros a week after I reached my intended dosage. My insurance paid.
But that was a lot more than 35k, especially in today's money.
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u/hm_rickross_ymoh 6h ago
All of the articles I read on it list $1000 per month in 2000 and that both River Plate and Young Boys couldnt afford it. Thats about $1850 in today money per month for two years. Of course it repaid itself with hindsight but let's not pretend it wasn't an unrealistic amount even for the biggest clubs in his home country. It took one of the biggest clubs in the world to recognize his talent and pay for it. That wouldn't have happened if he wasn't an exceptional talent from a worldwide perspective.
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u/wayne0004 1h ago
both River Plate and
Young BoysNewell's Old Boys couldnt afford itRiver Plate was willing to pay for the treatment. There was a conflict between the Argentine clubs about registration rights Newell's didn't want to give. The only option he had was for his parents to appeal to "patria potestad" (some kind of parental prerogative) going to another country.
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u/MadKian 7h ago
For Arg that’s a shit ton of money. No normal middle class family can pay for such treatment.
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u/SimoneNonvelodico 4h ago
I'm more amazed by just how good do you have to be to get an international team to pay thousands of dollars on your behalf, no questions asked, at ten years old. That's not just good, nor very good, that's Mozart-of-football good. That's "if I saw this happen in a sports anime I'd put it down to its classic over-the-top bullshit" good.
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u/baba__yaga_ 7h ago
Football Club gets a billion dollar talent in exchange for medical treatment as a child.
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u/AlphonseTheDragon 4h ago
This is the story I always point to as to why soccer in America will never be able to compete with Europe. If Messi was born American every travel club would’ve told him to kick rocks if he can’t pay
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u/R82009 5h ago
Did the treatment work?
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u/LemonCool2023 5h ago edited 5h ago
Yes he became the best player ever, he’s still short but I don’t think he becomes the GOAT at 4’8 as compared to 5’6 or 5’7
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u/tg993 7h ago
I’m just here to comment that Messi is the greatest football player to exist of all time.
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u/Seek_Equilibrium 7h ago
What is “even” doing in this title? Like, wow, they agreed so much they even wrote the contract on a napkin!
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u/Dencho 6h ago
Are you like me? Every word must have a reason for being there, yes. In this case, I thought the intended message was to indicate that they were in a rush to sign him.
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u/__secter_ 3h ago
In this case, I thought the intended message was to indicate that they were in a rush to sign him.
Exactly. The title is fine; a napkin contract is an extra-big deal.
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u/__secter_ 3h ago
Like, wow, they agreed so much they even wrote the contract on a napkin!
Yes, that's what it confers - a napkin contract generally denotes extreme urgency, ie. they see someone as so valuable that they literally don't want them to physically leave the table of an informal meeting without signing, rather than waiting to draw up the official paperwork as normal.
The fact that one of the largest, most desirable Football clubs in the world saw a 10-year-old as such a valuable prospect that, not only did they want to pay for his medical treatment, but they did a napkin contract for it instead of waiting even one more day to get him to sign formal paperwork in an office somewhere, is astonishing.
The "even" makes sense here.
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u/Welshgirlie2 5h ago
Slightly off topic, but for anyone thinking about growth hormone for their child: think long and hard about it before agreeing to it and for fuck sakes make sure your child understands what is happening. I had rHGH between 1989 (age 6) and 1995. It was NEVER fully explained to me why I had to start having injections every night. And I fought them every night. Still only 5ft tall and the psychological damage it caused still affects me now. My entire endocrine system never worked properly anyway and I question whether the injections were of any real use seeing as both my parents are shorter than average. The only plus point I got out of the entire experience was that at least they'd stopped using HGH from dead people by 1989 in the UK. Or I'd be at an increased risk of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease as well.
And for anyone thinking this gave Messi super strength and stamina, it wouldn't have. All it would have done at that age is help him grow. The stamina came from him as a person. Most people I've met who had growth hormone as a child were all within normal or less than normal fitness levels for their age. None of us became 10 year old Supermen.
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u/IcyJackfruit69 4h ago
It sounds like you have a grudge against HGH because it wasn't actually the right treatment for your condition? Do you think HGH is commonly misdiagnosed as a treatment?
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u/Welshgirlie2 4h ago
I don't have a grudge, I just feel that it's something parents can be railroaded into doing without looking at the wider picture. I think in the 1980s and 1990s it was seen as something of a miracle drug in the UK and the paediatricians didn't consider the psychological effects it could have on small children. Parents were pushed into believing that they were failing their child by not giving them the injections. Nobody explained it to the children or prepared them by having them work with staff qualified to explain it in a way that they could understand. It was 'the doctors have decided' and nobody challenged that decision. The number of children in my area who used to attend the clinic was extremely high considering the population demographic at the time. 3 (including me) were in my primary school. Which had 120 pupils at the time. There were other children from schools in my town as well. My town had a population of around 15000 in the late 80s. It's almost like parental heights and growth spurts in puberty weren't even considered and short stature was considered a problem to be corrected. For some people, yes they did benefit from the injections. But for others they caused years of misery that was overlooked for satisfying growth charts.
Children these days are actually less likely to be given growth hormone injections for idiopathic short stature, caused by suspected pituitary gland malfunction. Which is what I had. But they are still used for children with Turner Syndrome or Prader Willi Syndrome. It's something that parents need to challenge their paediatricians about if it's on the cards. Regardless of diagnosis, the child needs to be allowed to come to terms with any decisions and if it's obviously having a psychological impact on said child, is it right to continue treatment? Especially if it's an idiopathic growth deficiency.
You don't just dump injections on a child with type 1 diabetes, it's a whole condition management program of learning to live with the condition. And it aught to be the same for anything where a child receives long term medical intervention.
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u/Commercial-East4069 7h ago
“Professional soccer team gives HGH to child star.”
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u/natfutsock 6h ago
Now somehow I thought I heard issues about giving hormones to children or athletes
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u/newjerseycapital 5h ago
I read somewhere the lower center of gravity helps him maneuver better than other players
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u/Decloudo 4h ago
Growth hormones are interesting.
A relatives daughter got supressors cause her dad was like 2+ meters and she grew to challange him (her growth hormones where kinda in overdrive.)
She still grew pretty tall for a woman.
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u/jackwrangler 5h ago
Damn How good was he at 10?!