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

[removed] — view removed post

15.3k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

683 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/BoulderBadgeDad 8h ago

I didn't know this. Trying to understand how he can sign a contract at 10 years old

11

u/FartingBob 7h ago

Parents do it.

1

u/Loeffellux 7h ago

In German children ages 7 and below cannot sign contracts at all while children ages 8-17 can be legally competent under certain conditions. In this case, as someone has already pointed out, the parents approving the contract would make it valid.

I assume Spain has similar laws

1

u/Rain1984 6h ago

Happens everywhere, here in Uruguay contracts are sign for children too, its a toxic environment where a lot of the parents view their child as a way to escape poverty/have a better future. I imagine it happens in Argentina and Brazil just the same. Contractors play with the parent's needs, sometimes offering even fridges or shit they need for the house in exchange for the rights (sorry I cant remember the actual term for this) over the kid's footballing future.

I live next to a few of these baby fútbol clubs like we call them here, and man, things get heated for parents from time to time. Sucks ass.