By Esteban Mikkelsen Jensen
ROSARIO, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) — “Messi came out! Let’s play with the blue ball, please!” shouts two-year-old Nahitan, who is convinced that soccer star Lionel Messi (35 ) is in that modest house towards which he shouts with his sweet timbre of voice, not knowing that no one will get out of there.
That house located at number 525 Estado de Israel street is where the Argentine soccer player lived until he was 13 years old, in the La Bajada neighborhood of Rosario, Santa Fe province, about 300 kilometers north of Buenos Aires, an area of hard-working, humble people who do not forget their idol and beat their chests for him.
“I love you Messi,” repeated Nahitan, encouraged by his relatives, who traveled from Santiago del Estero, in the north of the country, to Buenos Aires, to greet “the captain” at the Obelisk, to thank him for having won, for Finally, the World Cup, with the heart-stopping definition against France (3-3 in extra time and 4-2 on penalties).
The caravan of the campus in the convertible bus would never reach that traditional monument in the center of the capital because the streets of Buenos Aires and its periphery overflowed with more than five million fans.
For this reason, the Veras decided to travel another 300 kilometers to Rosario, to Messi’s childhood home, on whose bars they hung a flag with a message of gratitude.
“I want to thank him for everything he did for us and for giving us so much football,” remarked Joaquín Vera (19).
“Messi is something unique, a genius, we love him very much, we love him,” he said.
The one who handles the keys to this construction is Matías (40), the second of the four siblings (the other two are Rodrigo, 42, and María Sol, 29) from the marriage of Jorge Messi (64) and Celia Cuccittini (62 ).
On one of its sides one of the murals that adorn the city shines: an image of Messi looking at the sky, his celebration in which he always greets his maternal grandmother Celia, who died in 1998 at the age of 68, a victim of Alzheimer’s, when Leo he had not turned 11 years old.
In one image, Messi was emotional in the middle of a video call with his wife, Antonella Roccuzzo (34), and their children Thiago (10), Mateo (7) and Ciro (4) sitting on the grass of the mythical Maracana.
It is a photo that excites the Messi family and that was captured in the midst of the new coronavirus pandemic, a stage of social isolation. And she was registered forever as soon as she won the 2021 Copa América against local Brazil, to cut a 28-year drought without titles for the senior team.
“Leo is a character that goes beyond sports, he is magical,” the author of that mural, Lisandro Urteaga (51), also from Santa Fe, tells Xinhua who painted it at various strategic points in the city.
Meanwhile, he gives a trace to another work of art that saw the light of day at the World Cup in Qatar, with the now famous phrase that Messi dedicated to his Dutch rival Wout Weghorst, in the quarterfinals: “What are you looking at, silly? Go there.”
Along with him, his partner Marlene Zuriaga (32), a native of Monje, a small town in Santa Fe, paints with equal enthusiasm.
“What he does and what he is is extraordinary, also because he is an emblem, an ambassador for the world, not only because of how fascinating his football expression is, his technique, his skills, but also because he maintains consistency, simplicity, a humility, a peace, gives a chair of respect, of camaraderie”, he pointed out.
“We take it as part of our gratitude for all that he has given us and continues to give us, and will surely give us,” said Urteaga.
The city is divided in two: on the one hand, the fans of Newell’s Old Boys, the red and black, the “leper”, in whose youth academy Messi played until he left for Barcelona, Spain, at the age of 13, and did not stop inflating the nets to win titles.
In Newell’s he also played seven games, in 1993, the other great Argentine idol, Diego Armando Maradona, winner of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
On the other, the fans of Rosario Central, the auriazul, the “scoundrel”, from where Angel Di María emerged, the one who scored the goals in the finals, the one who defeated the resistance of the fans, the one who gave the national team albiceleste the Copa América Brazil 2021 and the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
Mario Alberto Kempes, champion and scorer in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, also shone at Central.
“Leo had soccer as a child. It was terrible. The house was empty, but you saw a little redhead, La Pulga, it was him kicking,” one of the residents of the block, Nieves Meyer (62), recalled to Xinhua.
Messi, his brothers and their friends played ball all day in the street or in the open space owned by the Argentine Army at the time, about 100 meters from there, from where the military got tired of throwing them out.
“When he wanted to play soccer and his mother put him in penance, he would raise the blind, go out and play soccer,” said the woman, while recalling that it did not matter if it was hot, cold, or if the street was flooded. dirt from the rain.
“Everything was a reason to play football and Leo participated in all of them,” said Meyer, who said he did not remember Lionel “any other way than playing football.”
“You heard the balls hit the gate and you were already screaming: Lionel! We’re taking a nap!” the neighbor recalled with a laugh.
The boys came home from class, “they threw their backpacks, they played in their school uniform, they took off their shoes because if we didn’t we’d kill them and they would play on their feet, and what a big game they would have, eh,” he said.
Another who remembers those times is Carlos Ibañez (65), whom everyone in the neighborhood knows as “Carlitos.”
The man has a store and he was always the sodero, and he was the one who took his two sons to play at the Malvinas Argentinas children’s soccer school, in Newell’s, where Messi did what he wanted with the ball.
“We took him to play soccer, he came from playing in the Malvinas and wanted to go with our group that we played in a club with a mosaic floor, with material stands, you don’t know what it was,” he commented and recalled that if he didn’t they put, “I was crying.”
Ibañez pointed out that Lionel “stood out from the crowd, he was very good”, that he “was not afraid” despite facing bigger rivals and that he “was going to do” the purchases “with the ball”, which he never let go of. .
Messi went to school No. 66 General Las Heras, about 600 meters from his home. Andrea Sosa (56) was her fifth and sixth grade teacher when “La Pulga” was 10 and 11 years old, in 1997 and 1998.
“He was a calm student, compliant with his homework, responsible, respectful, without any problem, calm, passionate about recreation, yes, to go out and play ball,” he reconstructed in dialogue with Xinhua.
The teacher, who is saying goodbye in 2022 since the time for retirement has arrived, emphasized that Messi is an example for children, who are advised not to “leave school aside.”
For her, athletes not only play soccer, they also “have to know how to express themselves, they have to know how to speak, they have to have culture.”
On the street, everyone loves their illustrious citizen, whom they describe as their “God”, an “idol” who “represents” them.
Alejo (17), from Villaguay (Entre Ríos), imitates his voice and has the star in the background of the mobile phone screen.
Juan Echeverría (59), director of the Santa Fe Sports Museum, where there is an exclusive sector for Messi, highlights “his integrity as a person, as well as as a soccer mega star.”
Julián (17) defines him without euphemisms: “He is the love of my life.”
“We love you Messi!” He exclaimed with his friends Bruno and Joaquín (17).
Morena (17) considers it “proud” that she represents Rosario in the world and Gonzalo Cejas (34) proposes “making her a monument” in the city.
Sabrina (40) marks a difference with Maradona and expressed that “Leo has always behaved impeccably as a person, which is ultimately the most important thing, beyond the ball, a trophy or winning a World Cup.”
Finally, Martín (47) walks around the city with Messi’s 10 on his back.
“There is no other like him,” he said.
And he goes after a new dream, like that “Flea” who kicked the ball at the Abanderado Grandoli club, in Newell’s, in Central Córdoba, on the sidewalk, in the open fields, on whatever terrain, without fear and regardless. who was in front of him, as he still does at 35 years old.
By Esteban Mikkelsen Jensen – Xinhua News Agency
