Lionel Messi’s Coach Breaks Down As He Recalls 1st Time He Saw Him Play
- Lionel Messi remains the only player in the world that boasts six Ballon d’Or titles
- He joined Barcelona at the age of 13, but played for Newell’s Old Boys back home in Argentina
- His first coach at local club Grandoli, Salvador Aparicio, stated that he cried when he first saw Messi play
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An old interview with Lionel Messi’s first ever coach has gone viral on the internet showing that the tactician cried the very first time he saw the Argentine play football.
First man to coach the legend was Salvador Aparicio who died in 2008, but he denied discovering the player before his passage.
Sadly, he never got to see the superstar’s full potential, but the former Grandoli manager was alive when Messi broke into Barcelona’s first team and also play for Argentina.
Messi who was born in Rosario started his career with Newell’s Old Boys at the age of six before leaving Argentina to join Barcelona at 13.
Latest details however have it that before all that, Messi played for a local club Grandoli where Aparicio was coach.
In an interview conducted shortly before his death, Aparicio recalled first laying eyes on Messi as a young boy. Aparicio said via SPORTbible:
"Messi and his family once came to watch the match. His brothers played here. I was one player short, so I told Messi to come to play.
"He was small. Very small. First time the ball came to him and basically hit his left leg.
"The second time, he controlled the ball and started running across the pitch. He dribbled past everyone crossing his path."
"He scored six or seven goals in every match... He was supernatural, simply put."
Source: Getty Images
Meanwhile, Briefly.co.za earlier reported that former Barcelona right-back Dani Alves has named Neymar as the world's most skillful player ahead of Lionel Messi.
The 37-year-old defender spent eight seasons at the Nou Camp where he was able to play with the two exceptional football stars.
Apart from the Catalan club, Alves also shared the dressing room with the former Santos star at Paris Saint Germain and the national team.
The current Sao Paulo player while responding to questions during a question-and-answer session on Instagram, he insisted that Neymar remains the most skillful player out there.
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Source: Briefly News
Sibusisiwe Lwandle (Head of Entertainment) Sibusisiwe Lwandle is the Head of Entertainment at Briefly News (joined in 2019). She holds one Bachelor of Arts (BA) and one Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from the University of Cape Town and the University of KZN respectively. She has over 10 years of experience in journalism, having worked in print, online and broadcast media. She has worked at Independent Media and 1KZNTV and has contributed columns to the Washington Post. Passed set of trainings by Google News Initiative. Email: sibusisiwe.lwandle@briefly.co.za
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
