Is Lionel Messi autistic?
Was he receiving special treatment that forced his former coach, Pep Guardiola, to make an exceptional concession?
And how did the Argentine star deliberately resort to injury in order to play a match?
These questions and others were answered by a new documentary about the biography of Argentine star Lionel Messi, which was broadcast by the French channel "RMC" (RMC) yesterday, Friday.
The documentary returned to the issue of Messi suffering from autism, which was raised by the former Brazilian striker Romario, who tweeted - on Twitter in 2013 - that Messi suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that leads to better focus than others.
El texto habla que Messi tiene una forma leve de autismo, lo que permite tener más capacidad de concentración.
— Romário (@RomarioOnze) September 9, 2013
The statement was not motivated by the attack on Messi or his criticism, because the former Brazilian striker is the father of a girl with Down syndrome, as he confirmed in his statement that "Newton and Einstein were also somewhat autistic," and added, "Like them, I hope that Messi will outperform himself every A day, he continues to give and give us this beautiful football."
A Brazilian journalist - at the time - presented Romario's interpretation himself, and confirmed that Messi was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at the age of eight, which prompted those close to Messi to move and ask the Argentine star's childhood doctor to respond and testify, and threatened to file a lawsuit against Romario.
Psychologist Florent Legendre said - in the documentary - that some symptoms associated with Asperger syndrome may be similar to what appears in Messi, but he stressed that it is impossible to determine whether Lionel Messi suffers from the syndrome or not, because it requires a full medical analysis, especially since an attempt Some assert that Messi has autism can be "just a simplification to try to explain a genius whose mechanisms we do not understand. We always want to explain the inexplicable."
Messi and Guardiola
On the other hand, the documentary touched on another aspect of Messi's personality, as some close to him confirmed that in his first stage with Barcelona he was an introvert and a little talkative, and he did not express his positions directly.
During the coach Pep Guardiola's period with Barcelona, he was forced on one occasion to move to Messi's house in order to talk to the player after he interrupted one of the training sessions to express his anger at the coach's policy, which did not allow him to play all matches, so he either changed it before the end of the match or He sits on the reserve bench and then enters it as a substitute.
According to Alexandre Goyard - author of a book on Messi's life who narrated this incident - this behavior of Messi was a "call for distress, and then you must go to him and initiate contact with him, reassure him and help him return."
Injury, championship and bike
Before joining Barcelona at the age of 13, Messi began playing football with the Argentine club New Old Boys, and on one occasion he was on a date with a final match against Deportivo Rosario in a local tournament in which the winning team gets bicycles for all its players.
On the day of the match, Messi's family left the house towards the stadium to watch the match, not realizing that her son was trapped in the bathroom, and after losing hope of getting help from outside, he had to break the window, causing his hand to be injured, but he quickly ran towards the stadium to realize what was left of the match With his team and turn the delay of his comrades into a win, according to Carlos Morales, one of the first coaches who supervised Messi in Argentina.
"By playing and competing, Messi reveals himself. Look how he celebrates his goals! It's the only time he loses his shyness. For him, playing football is like breathing," Morales said.