When Lionel Messi was offered a place in one of Spain’s youth teams, he gave a short response: “I told them I’m an Argentine, from Rosario, and a leper.” Of course, he wasn’t referring to leprosy, but to Newell’s Old Boys, the Argentinian club known as La Lepra. He played there until 2000, when, at 13 years old, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean and joined Barcelona‘s under-14 team.
Seventeen years on, Messi is still infected with a desire to play for his boyhood club.
In a one-on-one with TyC Sports’ Sportia, Messi talked about the chance of his career finishing at Newell’s, saying, “I would like to play at Newell’s, play in Primera, be able to be inside of that pitch where I went to see so many games. But I don’t know what will happen from here to a few years, where I’ll be, how I’ll be to return. I can’t say I’m going back and I’m going to play. I would love it and I always said it but I don’t know what will happen. I hope it can be like that and I can play at Newell’s, which is what I dreamed about since …read more