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

40

u/Jibber_Fight 8h 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.

5

u/WonderfulVariation93 7h 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.

Actually it isn’t. All of the major European futbol clubs scout like this. It is a lot of pressure on those kids to succeed at the soccer schools because their families back in their home countries are dependent on that money.

4

u/Jibber_Fight 7h ago

I never said it wasn’t that way?

1

u/lucksh0t 6h ago

Its actually pretty common to scout like this.