Leo, the atypical hero

The night that Leo Messi broke Zarra's record as the league's top scorer, he hugged the ball with which he had scored three goals and joked with his teammates while a tribute video was projected in the stadium. When he left the field, he was no longer heard from until he broke another record: that of the top scorer in the Champions League. Messi doesn't like to speak in public. He hardly spoke a word before a packed Camp Nou after winning the Champions League and the League in 2011: “I promised I would speak, here I am. I have nothing to say to them…” he stammered.

Something similar lived in the dressing room of Argentina during the World Cup in South Africa. “Two days he was thinking what to say. In the end he said something, but he got stuck because he didn't know how to continue, "says Verón in Messi, Leo Faccio's book. He also did not do it in Mestalla a few days ago, when he was hit by a bottle thrown from the stands. He hurt her. But he didn't protest. Not even after seeing a yellow card for wasting time. “He doesn't dramatize. He always wants to keep playing. He is not interested in anything else, ”says Argentine journalist Ezequiel Fernández Moores from Buenos Aires.

Anyone knows who Messi is, how he is outlined from the right wing and borders the area to test his left foot and the goalkeeper on duty. But few people know him. One of those who does it best is Faccio. “Messi”, he says, “he is an atypical hero”. And it is explained: “We are used to the stars, but he has a private life that seems impervious to his public life. Leo is unrecognizable as he leaves the field. He plays for Barça, but he lives in Rosario”. Although his Argentine identity admits no doubts, there are compatriots who doubt him. “Maradona is pure extroversion. Messi is the opposite: apart from being a soccer genius, he just wants to be a normal person. In Argentina there are many people who still venerate Diego's warrior image and who are not attracted to Messi's silent leader. They do not forgive him that he has not won anything with La Albiceleste ”, explains Fernández Moores. And he closes: "Dealing with the pressure of having to win is always demanding."