The Magical Lionel Messi: how it all started

Argentina were World Cup holders back in 1987 and Diego Maradona was the planet's finest footballer but, in a poor part of the country's third-largest city, Rosario, something very significant also took place: Lionel Andres Messi was born.

The third son to Jorge, a steel worker, and Celia, a cleaner, young Lionel weighed in at just three kilos and was a mere 47 centimetres in height. He grew into the greatest goalscorer in Champions League history - but it was anything but easy.

Football was part of Leo's life from day one. Rosario Central were crowned champions of Argentina two weeks before Messi's birth, but little Lionel would inherit his father's passion for the city's other club: Newell's Old Boys.

"When his mother sent him off to run errands, Leo always took his football with him," his brother Matias once said. "And if he didn't have one, he would make one out of plastic bags or socks."

Even from the age of three, Leo and the ball were best friends. "I got given my first football when I was very young: three, maybe, or four," Messi said a few years ago. "It was a present and from then on it was the only present I ever wanted, Christmas, birthday or whatever: a ball." 

Young Leo went along to watch his brothers play at local club Grandoli, a modest team with no money and a dirt pitch in the south of the city. Their youth coach back then was Salvador Aparicio - and one night he found himself a player short.

"I looked up to the stands and saw him playing with a ball," he told Goal in a recording for partofthegametvbefore his death in 2008. "But he was so small, so we decided to wait for the other player to turn up. But he didn't, so I asked Lionel's mother if I could borrow him. 

"She didn't like the idea. She said he had never played [in a match] before. His grandmother was there too and she said: 'Come on, let him play'! So they let me borrow him.

"The first time the ball came to him he just looked at it and let it pass. He didn't even move. But the next time the ball came to him, it virtually hit him on the left leg. Then, he controlled it and started running across the pitch. He dribbled past everyone crossing his path. I was screaming for him to shoot, but he was too small. Ever since that day, he was always in my team."

That was at the age of five and, before long, Messi was not only dribbling, but shooting and scoring too.

"Later, in the youth teams, he scored six or seven goals in every match," Aparicio added. "Instead of waiting for the goalkeeper to kick the ball, he would take the ball off him and start dribbling all over the pitch. He was supernatural."

At the age of nine, Messi joined the club he still supports even today, Newell's, and was part of an exciting generation which lost just one match in four years. Little Leo, however, was the shining star of the Maquina de la '87 (the '87 Machine) - so named because all of its players had been born in 1987.

By the age of 11, however, it emerged that Messi was suffering from a growth hormone deficiency. Without the necessary treatment, his dreams of a career in football would be dashed.

Contrary to popular belief, Newell's did try and pay for treatment for their promising player, but with the club in crisis and few funds available, Messi's father grew frustrated. Social security saw to some of the medical bills, but the family were struggling to make ends meet.

Jorge Messi considered moving the whole family to Australia, but believed his son's football skills could help them to overcome their financial problems. He offered Lionel to River Plate and the young forward impressed as a 13-year-old against boys three years his senior in a trial alongside future international team-mate Gonzalo Higuain.

But Messi's father asked River for a job and a house in Buenos Aires and River took exception, while Newell's were also playing hard ball. So the move never materialised.

Instead, Jorge met with representatives of a scouting firm who called Argentine lawyer Juan Mateo, and a video of Messi kicking an orange (113 times in a row) and a tennis ball (120 times) was sent to Barcelona scout Josep Minguella.

Remarkably, that was enough to secure a trial at Barca and Messi travelled to the Catalan capital along with his father and one of the intermediaries, Fabian Soldini.

The forward's first contract was signed on a napkin by his father, Minguella and former Barca midfielder Carles Rexach, but his future remained uncertain for three years. Jorge was out of work and the club went back on several promises until a €4,000 per month contract allowed the family to breathe easily in 2004.

Later that year, a much taller and stronger Messi made his debut for the first team at the age of 17 and also scored his first Barca goal - with a beautiful lob - against Albacete that same season. A decade on, he has now not only become La Liga's greatest goalscorer, but also leads the scoring charts in European Cup and Champions League football.

"When we first saw him, he was so small that we wondered what he was doing here," Gerard Pique once said of little Leo. But how he grew.

Harmattan don come back again o

Harmattan don come back again o. For those of una wey no do geography for school, Harmattan na dat dry dusty wind wey dey always travel from North Africa to come do holiday every year for west Africa within late November to early February. E dey always travel pass through the dry sahara desert where e dey pack dryness and dustiness follow body. 

I swear to God harmattan show some people pepper last year for naija. I no even know which one harmattan dey sef, from too much cold in the morning and nights to too much heat in the afternoon. No be dat one be my problem sef because the way some children body go dey dry and white like say dey wan act as ghost for nollywood movie just dey make me fear. Some people legs go cut come dey tear bedsheet like say na razor blade. Sometimes cloths go just dey shock d owner like say na electric because of harmattan.  

Some people dey happy if harmattan dey come because dey know say christmas don near, infact one of my friend last week talk say she don dey feel the christmas wind already- me I knw say na harmattan she dey talk about. 

My own advice for una be say;

•         Buy wet lips o. if you no get money, use Ororo (groundnut oil)
•       Buy the biggest size of Vaseline because your expensive cream no go fit deliver you from d harmattan spirit
•     If you never get cardigan, u don enter wahala for morning and night cold. Make sure you get the thickest, but remove am before afternoon heat go catch u o.

The Farmer's Donkey.................

 

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for ...hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

MORAL:
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

WHO'S LOOKING FOR A HERO?

MRS BEATRICE JEDY-AGBA:

Beatrice Jedy-Agba was appointed Executive Secretary of Nigeria's National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other Related Matters (NAPTIP) in 2011. NAPTIP is responsible for enhancing the effectiveness of law enforcement, preventing root causes, and providing victim protection. The Agency has nine shelters across the country, and has assisted in providing assistance and rehabilitation to thousands of survivors.

         Mrs. Jedy-Agba is transforming the Nigerian national landscape with respect to combating trafficking. Under her leadership, NAPTIP has become a model throughout Africa for coordination of government anti-trafficking efforts. Her work has resulted in the incorporation of human trafficking issues into national development discourse and planning. She has improved NAPTIP’s relationships with critical partners in Nigeria’s anti-trafficking response, such as local and international NGOs and foreign governments. Not focused solely on the South/North trafficking routes, she has made significant efforts to return and reintegrate Nigerian survivors of human trafficking from several West African countries, and has led collaboration to address the trade in the region. Mrs. Jedy-Agba also has initiated human trafficking public awareness campaigns to increase understanding and mobilize the general public. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2014/226648.htm

THE SWEDISH EXAMPLE

He could be your neighbour, even your best friend. Or perhaps he is a colleague at work, or someone you talked to at a party last weekend. He appears to live a normal life – he’s married, has children, a good job – in other words, he’s a regular guy. But he also buys sexual services and thereby supports the market of sexual exploitation, prostitution and trafficking. And under the Swedish law, he is a criminal.

                     

Swedish law focuses on these men rather than on the young girls and women they exploit. Why? The thinking behind the law is that it is the demand for sexual services that maintains prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes. The legal approach to this problem is often referred to as “the Swedish example.”

In 1999, Sweden enacted a law that forbids the purchase of sexual services, a law that at the time was the first of its kind. As at 2009, both Norway and Iceland had enacted similar Laws.

The Boiling frog syndrome (By Nims Ayuba Aribi)

put a frog in a vessel of water and starts heating the water. As the temperature of the water
rises, the frog is able to adjust its body temperature accordingly. The frog keeps on adjusting with increase in temperature. Just when the water is about to reach boiling point, the frog is not able to adjust anymore. At that point the frog decides to jump out. The frog tries to
jump but is unable to do so, because it has lost all its strength in adjusting with the
rising water temperature. Very soon the frog dies.

What killed the frog?

Many of us would say the boiling water, but the truth is what killed the frog was its own inability to decide when it had to jump out.

The Hidden Message!

We all need to adjust with people and situations, but we need to be sure when we need to adjust and when we need to confront or face. There are times when we need to face the situation and take the appropriate action. If we allow people to exploit us physically, mentally, emotionally or financially, they will continue to do so…We have to decide when to jump. Let us jump while we still have the strength!

Commentary

The boiling frog story is a widespread anecdote describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually. According to contemporary biologists the premise of the story is not literally true; a frog submerged and gradually heated will jump out. However, some 19th-century experiments suggested that the underlying premise is true, provided the heating is sufficiently gradual.