“I was one of the youngest ones and therefore there were no categories for me yet, but one of them was missing a player and so my grandmother told the manager ‘to let me play,’ to which the manager replied, ‘How can we let him play? He is too small, he cannot play.’” Messi talked about how his brothers and cousins played in their respective age categories and he was too young to fulfill any. Grandmother Celia helped Lionel Messi start his soccer careerĪccording to a story told by Messi himself in an interview with Diario Ole, when he was small, Celia had pushed the manager of a neighborhood soccer club to let him play with the bigger kids. She died in 1998 when Messi was only 11 but she had already paved the way for Messi to become the star that he is today. GNoMIeSjFRĬelia is an instrumental figure in orchestrating the initiation of Messi’s career at Grandoli (Rosario’s local team). My grandmother came back and told the coach: ‘Buy him football shoes and next week I will bring him here for training’ and that’s where it started. Leo Messi: My grandmother insisted: ‘let him play, let him play’… then the coach put me in and I did some good thing. We know the celebration but do we know why he does it? It is, in fact, a part of a fitting tribute to his grandmother Celia Olivera Cuccittini. He points to the heavens with both hands every time he scores.

Argentina and Paris Saint-Germain superstar Lionel Messi has a trademark celebration for his goals.

The Flea by Michael Part