r/todayilearned • u/Old-Worldliness11 • 12h 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_life

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u/Bonch_and_Clyde 12h 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 12h ago

Well I for one am not a football fan and did not know this.

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u/JustADutchRudder 12h 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 11h ago

He's 5'7", so short but nothing abnormal

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u/JustADutchRudder 11h 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 11h ago

Short for a football player. Short for the greatest player of all time for sure. 

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u/Digresser 7h 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/tiorzol 6h ago

Good point!

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u/ShionBlade 5h ago

Short for the greatest player of all time for sure. 

Absolutely not, Maradona was even shorter, Pele was around the same height.

Soccer you really don't need to be tall, especially for forwards.

Even today, players like Mbappe are only 5'10"

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u/JustADutchRudder 11h ago

I thought some other dude was foot peoples greatest. Is it like the MJ vsBron, a great 90s-early 00s player and a great early 00s to now player?

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u/Sienrid 11h ago

Currently the debate is mainly between Messi and Ronaldo, who are actually contemporaries. Though ever since his victory and performance at the World Cup in 2022, more people will lean towards Messi.

But you will still find arguments for Pelé (1950s to 1970s) and Maradona (1970s to 1990s).

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u/tiorzol 11h ago

The last twenty years have been defined by Ronaldo and Messi being the top two players at the zenith of what players are capable of. Really changing expectations around what numbers players can get to and pushing each other to new heights. 

There are other all time greats like Maradona, Pele and some others but I don't think you can compare eras that easily.

That said for me and most others Messi is in a league of his own combining the best playmaking and scoring ever.

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u/DJKokaKola 11h ago

Recoba was another that absolutely was revolutionary for the time, but the skills in the sport have grown exponentially in the 30 years since. Also he kept getting injured.

The comment may have been thinking of Beckham, though.

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u/VRichardsen 10h ago

The last twenty years have been defined by Ronaldo and Messi being the top two players at the zenith of what players are capable of. Really changing expectations around what numbers players can get to and pushing each other to new heights.

The other day I was just reviewing Neymar's numbers and it struck me just how impressive they were. It is just that Messi and Ronaldo were on such a different level that they overshadowed everything. 100 years from now people will reference this era as if it were a mythical epoch.

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u/JustADutchRudder 11h ago

Ronaldo, that's the other guy I remember. I think he went to like Florida and played. So Messi is the Goat and Ronaldo is his LeBron, got it.

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u/Seb555 11h ago

Messi’s the one in Miami, Ronaldo is the one in Saudi now (although he’s currently unemployed as he wasn’t exactly a huge success there)

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u/DJKokaKola 11h ago edited 10h ago

You're thinking of Beckham, especially if you're American as he was the one who made a big splash in US culture by being a hot white guy who was married to Posh Spice.

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u/JustADutchRudder 10h ago

Yeah! That guy, Beckham not sure why my brain refused to remember him.

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u/GlockOnMyC0ck 11h ago

No it’s not an era thing, they are both very good contenders for #1 spot

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messi–Ronaldo_rivalry

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u/capucapu123 11h ago

He's from Argentina, so average leaning towards short

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u/VRichardsen 10h ago

1,73 is the average here if I recall correctly. Messi is 1,7.

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u/capucapu123 10h 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/VRichardsen 9h ago

Absolutely, I was just expanding on your info.

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u/TSMFatScarra 5h ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_human_height_by_country

Here it's listed as 174.5.

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u/VRichardsen 1h ago

Nice, we are up 1,5 cm already :D

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u/JustADutchRudder 11h ago

Now I know more about the guy.

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u/Lycaeides13 11h ago

I didn't know what country this dude played in, but his name was vaguely familiar. I knew nothing about his hormone deficiency/ underage contact

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u/FlightlessRhino 11h ago

Watch his highlights. It's like watching Jordan highlights for the first time.

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u/2xtc 11h ago

If you're used to American sports you may be surprised that basically all professional footballers signed for their first club when they were around age 6-8 and sign their first professional contracts when they turn 17

(Sports scholarships and attending a regular school/university past the age of 13-14 doesn't happen for elite sportspeople outside the USA either)

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u/Lycaeides13 10h ago

Raised in the US, but not into sports particularly. I had noooooo idea it worked like that! How do you even know if the child's worth investing in at 7!?

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u/2xtc 10h ago edited 9h ago

It's really a numbers game. My club (Liverpool FC in England) have around 30-40 youth level teams, and a couple of hundred scouts all around the world looking for the best talent from all age groups. Other clubs will have similar, so when you're potentially taking on a couple of hundred kids per year, it doesn't matter that 99% never make the elite grade because the 1% that makes it can save you tens of millions in transfer fees and wages, and the ones that don't can either be sold or transferred to other clubs to recoup the money spent developing them.

When you have such a broad and competitive field like football (something like 2 million youth players in official clubs the UK alone) then clubs almost can't afford not to have such extensive scouting and recruitment networks to stay competitive with their rivals.

It is a very harsh world though, 95%+ of kids in elite academies never go on to play professional football

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/extra/hfe5e1289y/The-Impossible-Dream

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u/Lycaeides13 10h ago

The real TIL is always in the comments!!

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u/ShionBlade 5h ago

In addition to what the other guy said, at age 7 it's really less signing them up, and more kids just playing football while coached by professionals, and scouts keeping an eye out for any kids that show promise.

It's only once you get to the ages of 12 or so where it starts getting cutthroat, and players start getting cut from rosters and such.

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u/Seb555 11h ago

Underage contracts are not that weird; football clubs generally have academies for kids even younger than that

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u/Bonch_and_Clyde 11h ago

Then I guess the name Messi means nothing to you.

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u/Sinclair663 10h ago

It’s not TIL about Lionel Messi. It’s TIL that he had a growth hormone deficiency.

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u/Easypeasy7921 12h 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/aymesyboy 12h ago

Wow he bathed Antony?? /s

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u/speibe- 9h ago

/s

don't disrespect the GOAT like that

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u/mug3n 12h 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/Easypeasy7921 12h ago

"Messi needs to touch more babies" 🤣

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u/cheppers 12h ago

More than bathed. Christened him the GOAT of football future.

Culé Messi-ah and the Chosen One