INTRO:

Well, I got to know him in 2005, at the U-20 World Cup,called the FIFA World Youth Championship. He starred brightly for his country Argentina. He wasn't the stand out star in the whole competition though, that belonged to the elegant midfield maestro of Nigeria, Mikel Obi. It so happened that Argentina and Nigeria got to the final and he won a penalty- a dubious one- and that gave Argentina the victory and unfairly Mikel was chosen as the 2nd best player in the tournament and he took top honours. His name is Lionel Andrés Messi, popularly called Leo Messi, born on the 24th of June,1987 in Rosario, Argentina.

HISTORY:

Messi started playing football as a young boy as is normal in his homeland and by the age of 8 he joined the youth team of a big top division club in his place of birth– Newell's Old Boys. Here he began to showcase his unique God-given talent that began to attract big clubs in Europe. It was Barcelona who succeeded in wooing him and the age of 13, Messi and his family moved over to Barcelona, and he began his meteoric rise to stardom playing for FC Barcelona’s under-14 team. He didn't fail and duly scored 21 goals in 14 games for this team.

Quickly he kept being promoted through the ranks at Barca that at a tender age of 16 he was given an unofficial appearance for Barcelona in a friendly.
Things got more official now with his quality irresistible at his young age. Thus in the 2004/05 season, became the youngest official player and goal scorer in the Spanish highest league(the La Liga). He was 17years then. He was and still is naturally left-footed,known for his balance,quick and intelligent movement with our without the ball,cute ball control and his versatility across the attack.

A WINNER:

He has never looked back since then becoming increasingly important for Barca and his country,winning several League titles,Champions leagues,Club world cups,age-grade laurels and so on. He has won the Copa America(South American continental competition) as captain of Argentina too. Only this year he was awarded the Balon D'or trophy for 2021,his eight,a record no other player has.

OUR FOCUS:

These days he is 34 years old and adjusting to a whole new environment in France with PSG,he joined from Barca only this summer. Standing at just 5 feet 7 inches it is amazing what he does with ball and that happens to be the focus of this post. How does this do his thing? What's so special about him? Or is he over-hyped?
Let me quickly clear the last question, he is not over-hyped please.

BRIEF ANALYSIS:

Now,looking at him on the pitch surficially,he seems ordinary to lots of people. That's why a lot of folks find it hard to place a finger on his difference– it is not so obvious and the average person wants to stay with what is obvious, what is fancy or catchy. Messi is not the flashy type with fancy footwork on the field– give that to the Okochas, the Robinhos,the Ronaldinhos or the Neymars– yet he's more effective than them all in beating players,waltzing through intending tackles. He absolutely does it better than them all.
His most lethal weapon is his brain(not even his sweet left foot)- I call it "brain power". He is able to process situations and execute his intentions, with precision, "spontaneously". You see, the human eye can blink before the brain thinks it, that's an instinctive reaction. Messi is so fast in his thought process, that one wrongly thinks he's being spontaneous or instinctive. Oh no,he thought everything through with speeds that are not normal. It is the speed of thought that sets Messi apart from the rest.

A friend and boss of mine submits concerning this trait of Messi: "Unfortunately, more [than] 80% footballers we watch have little of this trait"

Furthermore, to explain it with video terminologies, what most players view as fast motion or normal motion, is slow or very slow motion in Messi's brain. So he can easily edit,crop,adjust,etc because, it's all slow in his mind. The result becomes a wonder to fellow players and onlookers because they think it's impossible to come up with something new at such a high speed. That is why Lewandowski of Bayern Munich rightly said about Messi after he won this year's Balon D'or, that Messi makes everything look easy.
The secret remains the speed of thought,the speed of processing information, he thinks ahead of the opposition.
No footballing school can teach you this exceptionally quality of his. It's a unique gifting of God on him. Brain power to outrageous awe-inspiring levels.

cheerfully...