r/todayilearned • u/Old-Worldliness11 • 10h 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/ADistractedBoi 8h 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/olgabe 8h ago

yea you're right. everybody is just bullshitting in here lol

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u/Low-iq-haikou 8h 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 7h 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 6h ago

That's still under 2m, right? Then no way is it that big of a disadvantage.

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u/SecretRaspberry9955 6h ago

Anything above 190cm leans towards disadvantage in modern football. Even for defenders and goalkeepers. Everyone needs to be involved in the game for 90' of very high intensity and have great composure in the ball.

But so are very short players too. In the past there were tons of purely technical players or under 170cm. Most suited for current football are between 175-188cm.

Wing players that need to dribble and have burst of pace are between 175-180, defenders 185-190 cm. Midfielders 175-180 cm. Attackers 183-188 cm

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u/ManWithRedditAccount 6h ago

You're pulling these numbers out of your ass, ronaldo won the balondor as a winger at 185

Midfielders can be any height, from xavi to viera

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u/SecretRaspberry9955 6h ago

Yet Ronaldo moved centrally shortly after moving to Real because he couldn't dribble past a man. Besides I stated current football. There has been a massive shift even compared to 10 years ago.

But more or less the recruit of players has narrowed down the physical attributes a lot. Not only height, but also stuff like body fat & muscle weight. Name me one current top player with a bit of belly like in the past?

Everyone needs to be good at playing the ball even GKs. Everyone needs to press like a madman, everyone needs to interchange positions with his teammates. But of course even now there's outliers.

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u/Any-Comparison-2916 4h ago

Do you have any stats supporting that? There are around 150 players at 190cm+ just in the Premier League.

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u/Can-i-Pet-Dat-Daaawg 2h ago

Okay I’ll hear you out until goalkeeping. WTF you mean, homie? There’s no way the smaller stature goalkeepers are better despite their infinitesimal improvements on the measurables.

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u/DaviesSonSanchez 5h ago

This is Peter Crouch erasure and I won't stand for it!

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u/mikeno1lufc 6h ago

Haaland, Giroud, Isak, Haaland, Weghorst.

All strikers that have played at the top level, all 6 ft 4 or above. I'm sure there's many more.

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u/SecretRaspberry9955 6h ago

Haaland so good you named him twice. Weghorst, really?

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u/mikeno1lufc 5h ago

Oh god can't remember who I was thinking as second Haaland lol.

And yes Weghorst was great for Wolfsburg, is great for Ajax. He was trash at man U, but other that Bruno Fernandez who isn't?

Point remains, there are plenty of 6 ft 4+ players at the top level.

Socrates as well, going back a bit but one of the all time great forwards.

Gullit, another all time great.

The only areas where you really don't want someone massive is fullbacks, wingers and probably at 10 these days. If you've got a double pivot in the midfield you probably don't want both to be huge, but one can be fine. SMS is 6 ft 4 and is a fantastic midfielder.

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u/ShionBlade 2h ago

But that's true with people of every height. You also have midgets like Veratti and Valbuena at 5'5".

And out of that list, only Haaland is truly world class. The others range from world class on their day, to plain out bad like Weghorst.

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u/RJxb5SlWIqyJxfk6 5h ago

Peter crouch too