INDISTINCT CHATTER Leo!
SHOUTED ENCOURAGEMENT
CHEERING
# I lost my mind
# So I stepped out for a time... #
Messi. Give it to him and pray.
Messi! Goal!
It had to be Messi!
# ..on a long road to unwind
# I met myself there
# Saying, go home... #
It's not easy to be always at the peak of your game.
It's basically impossible. But he made it feel like it was possible.
He's always a few seconds before the rest.
He's doing it at a speed that no-one else works at.
The talent's just incredible.
# Yeah, they knocked me out then
# They barely move now... #
Messi collects.
Messi scores!
Everyone will remember him as the greatest.
Messi! CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Nobody could really believe that he would go somewhere.
He's Leo Messi. He's supposed to finish his career in Barcelona.
MESSI SNIFFS
Messi's Barca. Barca's Messi.
Messi's Barca. He's a symbol of Barca.
They think, in Barcelona, Messi is one of them.
A Catalan.
CROWD CHANT: Messi! Messi! Messi!
The Messis are a typical Rosario family -
humble, from a working-class background.
You could see those values, the family values, in Leo, you know.
He married Antonela, his childhood girlfriend from the neighbourhood.
He's still very close to that area, to his friends.
DOG BARKS
He was a very small kid.
You know, he didn't speak. He was very, very shy.
The first training session we had with Leo, and I was playing
a bit more as a defensive midfielder,
and we were doing this exercise of one against one.
In my head, I'm thinking that I'm going to get the ball easy,
you know, from him, because I like to go on the floor
and I like to tackle.
But then I was seeing that he was coming with...
The speed was not normal. He was coming very, very fast at me,
and I was already shocked, because I remember falling on the floor.
You know, I lost ability and he scored the goal.
So, from that moment I said, "Hold on a second,
"we need to take this boy very, very seriously."
Before, it was not that normal to see players
at that age coming from so far.
We were all from the area, Barcelona.
If you were very good, they could take you from somewhere in Spain.
So, of course, you know, seeing someone coming from
so, so far away at such a young age, we all thought,
"Wow, this boy must be something really special."
Once in Barcelona, things didn't work smoothly,
and six months after arrival,
there was a turning point of everybody's life.
Leo's dad and mum, Celia and Jorge,
had been together
since they were teenagers.
Sister wasn't adapting.
Matias, he had a girlfriend back in Rosario.
It was a time to decide - do we stay in Barcelona
or do we go back to Rosario?
They sat around the table, the whole family.
"Leo, what do you want to do?"
And Leo said, "I want to succeed.
"I want to be a Barcelona. I want to be a professional player."
The consequences of that - they hadn't told Leo, of course -
is that meant that Mum will take sister and the two brothers back
to Rosario, and Dad will stay with him.
You need to be mentally very, very strong.
You need to have a special character.
Otherwise, you don't succeed.
There is so many moments where you feel weak,
where you... You know, your head mislead you a little bit,
that you want to go back to your family,
you want to go back to your habits,
to your grandparents, to your friends,
to playing football where you started.
So, I'm sure it was very tough,
but I want to believe that, you know, we were good kids as well,
and we tried all the ways to be next to him and help him
as much as we could.
There were moments, a lot of moments,
where I'm sure Leo must have, if not doubted,
at least wondered what he's done to his family.
And often he would go into his room
and put his head under the pillow and cry.
And he did that so his dad didn't hear him cry,
because he then, at 14,15,
realised that because of his decision, he couldn't get it wrong,
and basically now it was his time to deliver.
Gerard Pique also left the year after me,
and Gerard and I, we were from Barcelona.
We were there because maybe we were the best in Barcelona,
not because they saw us in Argentina, 12 years old,
and they thought we could be one of the best players in the world.
Hello.
The first time I saw him, actually,
was when we went to pre-season tour to Asia with Barcelona.
And it was my second year there.
And, yeah, you're a lot of young players
and the regular squad,
and Leo was coming with us,
and I haven't seen him playing football,
but obviously I understood that if he's with us,
he can play a little bit.
And I remember talking to Giovanni van Bronckhorst
after the first practice, "Who's that guy?"
And he said, "It's Lionel Messi."
He's from Barca B, he's going to come in and play with us."
And I said, "Ah. Well, he can play."
His character back then was quiet, breathing in the situation.
At the time, Ronaldinho was the main man in the dressing room.
He was the number ten.
What he could do with the ball was just incredible.
When I joined Barcelona, when arriving in the changing Room,
Ronaldinho put me aside and he started to speak with me
and he said, "Whatever you need, I'm here for you."
He did exactly the same with Leo.
Him, Deco,
they were superstars, but they were so humble.
With Leo, he understand he will become in the future
one of the greatest of all time, you know?
So, he was there for every single moment.
When I saw Ronaldinho, I thought, this is the best footballer
I will ever see, up until that day.
Ronaldinho handled everything with a smile.
Leo is a little bit more introvert,
but I think saw what it takes to be the main man.
Leo Messi's brought the Camp Nou to life!
We were meeting without Leo.
Sometimes we were speaking about his talent, and we were making, like,
some kind of plans to make him grow in the best way.
In that meeting, it was Deco, Ronaldinho, Puyol, Xavi.
People who made history
not only in Barcelona but in football world.
Perfect.
STADIUM ANNOUNCER: Claudia Schiffer und Pele.
For the 2006 World Cup, the whole FIFA machinery
is now making a thing about Messi.
And so there's buildings in Germany with his picture,
and there's a lot riding on this expectation.
Young Leo would have just won the Youth World Cup,
and he was part of that generation of young players coming through
with Jose Pekerman as the manager.
COMMENTATOR: Listen to the roar that greets this young man.
It's only his eighth cap.
His nickname is The Flea.
In front, we play me and Saviola,
Tevez and Riquelme.
We were a great team.
He's coming and joins us as a number 23 or 22,
in terms of the list.
Everyone wants to see Messi.
And Messi's already a name and a thing,
but he's never played World Cup.
He was a really young player,
but at the same time show us - everything, he can do it.
Pekerman plays Messi not that much in that World Cup.
And in fact, when Argentina go out to Germany,
Messi's on the bench.
COMMENTATOR: It's Germany!
Jens Lehmann is the hero.
Germany are into the last four!
This is the one instance, I think, in the history of world football
where it was unanimous that people were furious
that Messi didn't play.
Messi was furious, the Argentinian FA were furious,
the fans were furious, the journalists were furious.
Possibly FIFA were furious.
When you are eliminated after the World Cup,
everyone wants to find the guilty,
every of us wants to...
"If I change that or that to change the history."
The history, you never change it.
Leo started to accumulate games
and started to score goals and to be different.
Those two years - 2006, 2007 - were a turning point.
I was playing for Espanyol
and he was on the other side of the city.
He had some friends, but he was shy
and I felt like I need to look after him.
I need to make sure that he's always good
and surrounded by nice people
because in football, when you...
..when you become a star,
everyone wants to come and be your friend.
I was the only one to drive,
so I used to take him a few times to some restaurant,
and I remember his father talking and saying,
"Please, take care of him, you know, look after Leo."
For me, it was like having an...
Imagine £80 million next to me.
HE CHUCKLES
The main thing was just to drop Messi off in his house
and safe and all that.
Nobody knew me. That's...
I was playing for the other team of the city,
but everyone knew Messi.
You started to see Rijkaard wanted to play him more
because obviously, even at this high level, he could...
..have great use of Lionel.
At one point, he scored when...
..when he wanted to score.
SPANISH COMMENTARY
At a time where you don't give 17-year-olds opportunities,
especially in Barcelona, the manager will demand players
that are already matured and that allow Barcelona to win.
It wasn't the done thing to get youngsters through.
Yes, at some point.
For instance, Iniesta started making an impact when he was 23,
Xavi when he was 22
At 17, it's just... It wasn't the done thing.
But Frank gave him the opportunity.
Frank, for me, was the best coach I had.
He had the right word in every single moment for any one of us.
Frank could see the context of the situation,
could see how important it was that in the first few years
there wasn't so much demand towards Messi.
He became like an older brother to Leo.
I think he was lucky to have the first coach Frank,
because Frank was different.
He always told him, "Leo, you are a winger right now
"because you've got pace and you can influence the game a lot in there,
"but you are going to be, at some point, the main focal point.
"It could be under me or under somebody else,
"because you're going to grow to become a player that wins games."
COMMENTATOR: Xavi.
Messi. SPANISH COMMENTARY
COMMENTATOR: But here's Maradona again.
Has Burruchaga to his left, and Valdano to his left.
He won't need any of them.
Oh! You have to say that's magnificent.
Everybody said it's like the Maradona magic is back
in the feet of this guy from Rosario.
Pure football genius.
How do you compare yourself to Maradona if you're Argentine?
I mean, the two goals that Maradona scored
against England in 1986
were living out an Argentine fantasy.
He already had become the big hope of Argentinian football.
But of course, what everybody wanted is not just that he becomes
the leader of Argentina and makes them win the World Cup,
as Maradona had done - people wanted him to be Maradona.
MUSIC: La Bamba by Dusty Springfield
Maradona, Maradona, Maradona.
Diego brought so much joy to the Argentinian people.
If you're creating a narrative,
you want disaster as well as the triumph,
and Maradona had had that.
And he wins the World Cup.
The truth is, in terms of football, they are so similar.
Off the pitch, they're massively different.
Diego is a huge personality off the pitch as well -
a massive ego, huge following.
Everywhere he went, his life was madness.
Messi's quiet and much calmer off the field.
Maradona, from the very moment he arrives,
people realise this is...
I mean, his nickname immediately was El Pibe de Oro -
the golden urchin, the golden child, the golden boy.
It's that he looks like the ideal of an Argentinian
and that he has this very dramatic life story.
And so I guess that's the pressure -
he is always being compared directly to Maradona,
but until he wins a World Cup,
he's never going to match him for Argentinians.
Have you seen that advertisement of a...
of a rabbit with, um...
..with drums.
He's got two batteries, that rabbit.
You take one, it stops.
Messi had only one - couldn't grow naturally.
What the hormones did, once they identified
that he had a growth problem, was to make him grow naturally.
That was already a test to his endurance and his mental strength
because he just had to get this little thing, open it,
injection, just put it into his leg, and move on.
And to see an 11-year-old doing that, it must have been a shock.
The way they worked at the time was that agents proposed players
to the club and there were agents that were close to Barcelona,
like Jose Maria Minguella.
He told Barcelona that it would be a good idea to get him,
and the reaction from the club was like,
"A 12-year-old from Argentina?"
That wasn't done and.
And, all right, they convinced Barcelona to do a trial for Leo.
Charly Rexach, the director of football at the time, arrived,
started walking as the game was going on,
was looking at what Messi was doing, must have been one minute, two,
sits on the bench and tells the coaches,
"Exactly why you haven't signed that guy yet?"
Because he was outstanding.
There was a meeting in a tennis club
and I think it was Charly who asked for a napkin, paper napkin,
and a pen and just wrote a few conditions.
And, you know, "I, Charly Rexach, agrees
"that Leo Messi will be a player."
Barcelona signed it and gave it to Minguella,
hoping that that was enough.
And, yes, that was enough.
Watching this Barcelona team was brilliant.
That was Pep's first experience as a coach in Barcelona
with probably the best Messi,
with prime Leo.
Pep improved Messi and Messi improved Pep.
They were... They were perfect together.
That was probably the best team he played in, Barcelona at that time.
I mean, they were so strong, weren't they?
With Iniesta and Xavi and Pique and Puyol -
all these wonderfully gifted players.
So if you've got a great team behind you, that's going to help you.
However great you are, you do need a team.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ANTHEM PLAYS
COMMENTATOR: It's Manchester United against Barcelona
for the biggest European Cup prize of them all.
SPANISH COMMENTARY Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo...
We were ready for Messi, yeah.
We thought.
We'd played against him before and we'd locked him down.
Um... But this was a different Messi.
This was Messi who had more freedom to run around
and pop up anywhere and surprise you.
Pfft.
If you were picking out the five best players in the world -
Messi, Ronaldo, right?
Xavi, Iniesta, and many would argue Busquets.
So four of the top five players in the world, arguably,
are playing in that one team.
COMMENTATOR: Barca lead 1-0.
Hold on, and they had Pep Guardiola.
Do you know what I mean?
What I used to do a lot is gamble on their...
..their lack of ability to be able to get the ball past me.
Problem was the person on the ball was Xavi.
Si.
If you know your players, you know who you're dealing with.
SPANISH COMMENTARY
Scores with a header!
Lionel Messi makes it Barcelona 2-0 Manchester United.
When Messi scores the header and everyone says,
"But, like, the size of you, the size of him..."
An outrageous header, really.
He hasn't scored many of them in his career
but he's done it in the big moment.
HORNS HONKING CHANTING
Messi!
CHEERING
Barcelona ended up winning absolutely everything
because he was the best player in the world at the time.
The thing about him is that he took it naturally.
You know, for him, it's in his veins, it's in his blood.
He just wants to win at any cost.
Whatever he needs to do, he will do to win.
Leo always wanted to win something with Argentina.
He said many, many times that he will swap all his individual awards
for winning something with Argentina.
HE SINGS IN SPANISH
In 2010, as always, the expectations were very high.
CHANTS IN SPANISH
Messi's the best player in the world.
Better than Maradona. Better than anybody. Better than Ronaldo.
Messi!
Diego Maradona in charge
with a very good group of players,
with Leo with a few years under his belt as the main player.
The relationship was very good.
Diego loved Leo,
and for Leo, Diego obviously was a hero.
It ended up in disaster.
COMMENTATOR: It's four!
Getting destroyed by Germany.
Maradona's Argentina are out.
I think the expectation to have in the same squad Leo
and also Diego as a manager was...
..was difficult.
Things got very volatile between Diego Maradona
and the whole Argentina football world.
INAUDIBLE
Maradona thrived on conflict.
His fuel was this very nice word
from Argentinian slang - bronca.
Argentina against the world, him against the other players.
He really fed off this sense of conflict.
I think Messi is evolutionarily more advanced
and rather than thriving on conflict, he thrives on cooperation,
which is really...in the kind of evolutionary term,
survival has always come about through cooperation
rather than competition. And so Messi needs to be part
of a well-oiled, harmonious machinery
that is about him being in a cooperative system.
COMMENTATOR: We're at Wembley
and it's the 2011 Champions League final,
arguably the biggest game in football.
The finals where we got Barcelona,
unfortunately for us, we were facing
the best team in the world
with one of the best players
that's ever, ever put on a pair of football boots.
I look at it now and think, you know what, how unlucky is that, really?"
To get to two finals and we bump into them. It's a liberty really.
Si. It shouldn't be allowed.
COMMENTATOR: Xavi. On to the unmarked Pedro.
And it's a goal for Barcelona!
Messi was just like...no eye contact,
nothing. He just separated himself.
He just played away from you.
And then, all of a sudden, he'd turn up - bang.
Sir Alex Ferguson said that he
should've put Ji-sung Park on him maybe.
If anyone could've done it, he would've been the guy.
But I've watched some of the clips in that game
and he moves Ji-sung Park about. Woo-woomp, moves him, see you later.
He would have slowed him down maybe, which maybe would have been enough.
But does that stop prime-time Lionel Messi?
I very much doubt it.
I don't think one player can do it.
Iniesta. Messi still lurking deep.
The ball played between Xavi and Iniesta once more.
Messi's available.
Messi given the ball. Scurries forward.
What a goal from Lionel Messi!
SPANISH COMMENTARY
I remember standing on the pitch and just going,
"We just need to get off here because they've just took..."
"They've took our soul, basically."
And Messi was the main ingredient.
The Pep years were probably the start of Messi's peak.
It's been a long peak!
I get a bit carried away by Messi.
I don't mind admitting that because he fills me with joy.
If I had one game left on Earth,
I'd watch Messi because Messi stirs the soul.
Never fails to take the breath away.
He does four or five things in every game I would never have been able
to do once in my entire career.
He's running with the ball, tighter control than anyone,
quicker than anybody, and the agility to be able
to change direction, all with his head up.
Just a wonderful footballer, man.
Just, like, can't even put it into words, how good is.
Sometimes I thought about it like if it was me who scored
that many goals, like, how would you feel?
You know, because sometimes I score a goal.
I scored only one hattrick in my career and I was, like,
I couldn't sleep for two days!
But he must have felt this every game he plays.
There doesn't seem too much of an ego with him.
I remember being at a Barcelona game once, sort of backstage,
and he walked past with all the other Barcelona players
and it was almost like a sort of school trip,
with Xavi and Iniesta, but he just didn't,
he wasn't leading things, just seemed part of the team.
Many of our superstars, they're much bigger personalities
off the pitch as well.
He's not, he's the opposite. He keeps himself to himself.
So, he's a little bit of an enigma in that sense.
I do remember interviewing him in Barcelona once
and after the interview, I was waiting in the car park
and there were loads of tourists going to the museum and the shop
and people milling about.
And there was a guy that worked at the stadium chatting
to a younger guy who was leaning against the car, eating an apple.
And it took me quite a while to realise
that the younger guy was Messi.
You know, nobody noticed he was there.
I don't know what that is, but I know that other players,
even of that same Barcelona team, would have garnered more attention
in a public space like that.
His wife is his childhood sweetheart.
There's nothing wrong with that. That's fine. That's great.
But there's a sense that a lot of things in his life are exactly
the same now as they were when he was sort of 15, 16.
And I guess, you know, his lifestyle hasn't changed that much.
Turns up to training.
Do your training, do your fitness work.
Go home, play a bit of PlayStation.
There's something about him that just makes him not stand out...
..unless he's on the pitch.
2014 World Cup. Millions of Argentina descend on Brazil.
The teams play well. Leo play very, very well.
That's what they came for, by train, plane and automobile.
50,000 Argentines have found their way to Rio
and Lionel Messi finally rewards them.
We get to the final with a lot of hope.
They all expect Leo to win and do everything.
At some point, it was so much pressure on Leo.
He's not a person, he doesn't like to talk too much.
He said a few words before the game against Germany.
As a leader, you don't need to speak all the time.
Sometimes you have leaders in the team that they probably
don't speak too much.
But then in the right moment to talk to someone is the moment
to say something and everyone listen.
Guys, we're in the World Cup final.
Whatever happen today, if we win, we lose,
just let enjoy the game and, you know, that coming from Leo,
that he's been in Champions League final,
he's one of the greatest players in the world,
but he knew that that day and that game was special.
It was a dream for him, being in the World Cup final as well.
The difference is, it's big, winning or losing the World Cup.
Because if you win, you can say for the rest of your lives,
I'm a World Cup champion.
The flag has stayed down this time...
Messi's missed.
With the crowd just waiting to roar.
If you lose, it's like, how long is it going to take again
to be in a World Cup final? So...
..that's why that day is, like...
Shurrle. Working it in.
Chance for Gotze!
Mario Gotze scores for Germany!
Germany are champions of the world.
After the game was, like...
It was terrible.
We were all crying like babies because, you know,
it was very close.
Still hurting.
There's the extraordinary image at the end of that game when Messi
is presented with the Player of the Tournament award
and he looks totally devastated.
You know, he's trying to be polite, but his face is saying,
I just want to get out of here.
When you lost a World Cup final...
..you don't need to say anything.
A few pictures of Leo looking at the World Cup.
A tough one to take.
You want to see the best player of the modern age
having a great tournament in the greatest tournament.
Shortly afterwards, the mood changed.
There was this extraordinary demand from Argentina
that because he performed so fantastically with Barcelona,
he somehow had decided not to perform that well with Argentina.
Although Messi still speaks with an Argentinian accent,
he eats Argentinian food, although he watches Argentinian films,
listens to Argentinian music,
there's still a sense in Argentina he's a bit European.
I remember being in Santa Fe and the bloke reading out the teams
for the game said,
wearing the ten, the greatest in the world, Lionel Messi -
sort of half hearted applause -
and wearing the 11, the player of the people,
el jugador del pueblo, Carlos Tevez, and everybody goes berserk
because Tevez was seen as being more truly Argentinian.
There's no sense that his genius has been hard wrought.
There's no sense of any kind of suffering.
And I think there's a feeling, not just in Argentina, but that geniuses
should somehow suffer for their greatness.
And Maradona, that was front and centre, whereas Messi,
and it's ridiculous to criticise somebody for this,
it's just been season after season after season of relentless
excellence, and particularly for somebody who's never played
league football in Argentina, that creates that sense of distance.
I think 2016 was the big change.
The Copa America is the Euros of South America.
To get to the final is very hard. There's no easy games.
So, in 2015, Argentina would play Chile in the final.
Drew 0-0, lost on penalties.
Same thing happens in 2016 in the US,
in the Copa America Centenario.
It is Messi who misses the penalty.
PORTUGUESE COMMENTARY
We lost three finals, three years in a row.
So, that's where the pressure started to build.
He looked visibly like someone who just can't take it any more.
That was a very difficult moment for us.
That was the third final that we lost in a row.
So, we were very, very sad.
I cried that day. You know, it broke my heart, you know.
You know, he burst into tears in the middle of the pitch.
I said, you know, how can we, how can we come to this, you know?
Here he comes.
Very surprised, no, because our capitano, our leader...
..was going to leave the team, was very difficult.
What that miss did was to humanise him.
Any doubts people in Argentina had about how much he cared
disappeared at that moment.
His tears and his obvious anguish, that's when it changes.
And suddenly there's this desperation of
we've got to get Messi to winning something.
People were writing odes, saying,
"I love you just the way you are. I don't need a cup."
On the underground, these messages, "Lionel, please come back."
And everyone pleaded to the point that eventually the entire football
association rebuilt itself, hired managers that would make sure
he was comfortable and he returned.
Our national colours mean a lot to us.
He would not have wanted to stay in history like he gave up.
And he's not a quitter.
First time European champions...
..kings of Europe..
..are Portugal.
Messi didn't win it for Argentina while his nemesis, Ronaldo,
wins the Euros and is in the top of the world.
When everything calms down and sees that Ronaldo keeps succeeding,
he cannot deny that that rivalry makes him better.
Ronaldo, Messi, were actually in the same league,
fighting for the same titles, including the individual ones.
I think one of the Ballon d'Ors that Ronaldo won,
something turned in his stomach and thought,
it's going to be me next year.
Just look at the stats.
There'll be a couple of goals from Ronaldo,
Messi will score three.
They will be three from Messi,
Ronaldo will score another hat-trick.
As they become older and start having kids,
one thing that happens is that they recognise
is that their journey was very similar.
Both of them had to leave home at 12, 13.
Both of them had to beat a lot of obstacles.
In the case of Ronaldo, bullying and jokes about his accent,
about his skin, about what, his looks, and in the case of Messi,
he had to battle his chronic shyness
to actually have a little bit of a presence off the pitch.
Now, there is no friendship, but what there is is an admission
or recognition of admiration of one to another.
Mbappe...
Mbappe!
It is France who've won through to the World Cup quarterfinals.
How could it possibly be that player that good could go
through his entire career and not win a senior trophy?
You know, this is somebody who's given so much to the game,
who's been so brilliant for so long,
and you sort of feel football sort of owes him one.
Suddenly we were back in Brazil, a few years back
after the disappointment of the World Cup, and this was even nicer
because at the Maracana it was not the Germans, Brazil.
Like it was meant to happen, you know?
Before, everyone expecting Messi to do everything, to get the ball,
dribble four or five players and score into the top corner.
And I think we understood, this young team, how to play for him.
It was, like, guys, it was meant to be.
We were supposed to play in Argentina.
They change last minute.
Back in Brazil. We've been 40 days away from our families.
And he said something about me that obviously I will never forget.
He said, "Emi saw his daughter born on FaceTime, you know.
"He couldn't even give her a cuddle.
"So, let's do it for him."
I had butterflies on my tummy when he was saying that
and he nearly made me cry just before the game started.
Argentina lead, thanks to a moment of magic from Angel Di Maria!
Everyone ran to Leo...
..to say, "We won it."
Everybody were really happy for him.
I hugged him so hard and said, "We did it."
You know, I was crying. I'm a very emotional guy.
I had to grab him in the air, you know, like, here,
you know, come here.
Like my little, like my boy, Santi, you know, like...
I love the guy, man.
He won everything - Ballon d'Or, Champions Leagues,
and he hugged that cup like he was the baby.
He left all the trophies outside to win this one.
You've got to take it in
before this guy leaves the pitch for the last time.
No-one is like Leo Messi.
It's impossible to arrive to that level.
It's impossible.
That's the legacy, because if he has done it,
somebody else will do it at some point.
It's possible.
But I can tell you that right now, it feels impossible.
I don't think we will ever see someone like him again.
At least not in my time.