7 March is a happy day for Barcelona and its fans around the world. On this day in 2001, the first appearance of the Argentine legend Lionel Messi in the Blaugrana shirt was in the U-14 league.
Since that time, the golden leg of the Golden Ball has been the best player in the world five times, and the story continues.
And before it ends on March 7th |
Carlos Rexasch was the first to take part in Messi's move to Barcelona, ​​who told the Sun newspaper last year that the Argentinian star was shy when he first saw him and drew him into an unnatural move.
"I was in Argentina when they told me about a boy called Messi. I thought they were talking about a boy between the ages of 18 and 20, but I was surprised when they told me he was 12 years old," Rexac said.
The former Spanish international player Rexasch that a decision was made to travel the child "miracle" to the city of Barcelona in order to test it, and make sure the good words that were said about it.
He added that as soon as he arrived, some coaches were concerned about the youngster's small size compared to his age.
He explained that he had organized a match to discover the real talent of Messi, which appeared clearly in that match in which he scored a goal.
"Messi had an abnormal ability, everything instinctive, he was born in order to play football, and I said I must sign with him, this child from another world."
Rexasch said that European laws made it difficult to contract a non-European player. Messi's father lost patience because of the late signing of the contract with his son. He told him he was about to leave because he felt they were fighting him. "I gave him the word that we would sign with Messi, I asked the restaurant waiter to bring me a tissue with my first contract with Messi. "