10 - Lionel Messi - v2

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CatalinR10

CatalinR10

Senior Member
On Tuesday, the Estadio Nacional in Lima will be the venue for the game billed as the ‘Duel of Giants’. In the Peruvian capital, Messi will be sharing a field with future FCB team-mate Neymar, along with Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets, Abidal and Mascherano, and other stars of the calibre of Julio César and David Luiz.


 
F

Flavia

Guest
How long till tonight's match? I get confused with timezones :p

Edit: nevermind, found out sportv will broadcast the game here :D
It starts in 3 hours.
 
K

KhaledBarca

New member
OLD BUT GOLD!

Barca #3: Ten Cate remembers Messi
May 21st, 2011


Frank Rijkaard and Henk ten Cate will never say they “discovered” Messi. Because no one did. Or more to the point: everybody did. But Ten Cate and Rijkaard were the coaches who brought Messi into the Barca finest for the first time.
Txiki Begiristain was the Barcelona youth coach who’d suggested a couple of Barca-youngsters to the duo, when Barca played against Porto in November 2003, to commemorate the opening of Porto’s new stadium. “It was an international weekend,” remembers Ten Cate, “And we basically missed practically our whole first team as we had a plethoria of internationals. So we went to Portugal with our B-squad and youngsters.”.
Rijkaard and Ten Cate know Messi. They saw him play before, in the youth competition. And they looked at one another. “Look at him. He’s so small. Let’s do it. Let’s bring him.” The kid started to warm up. He’s standing at the byline waiting to come on. Trembling almost. Only sixtee minutes to go. Messi is on. The ball is circulated. Fast. And one of the older hands decided to pass the ball to Messi. Really fast! But with one single move, Messi stops the ball dead. Ten Cate can talk about with relish.
“He was just 16 years old and really thin. I actually felt for him. When he touched that ball for the first time, my jaw dropped. He demonstrated his skills in those 16 minutes and a star was born, then and there.”

But this would not be his actual break into the team. “He wasn’t ready. He was more a futsol player. So we decided to move him to Barcelona B, which plays in the segunda division and that is one tough as nails league. This is because we doubted his physical powers. He had a very tough year that year. He received the most horrible knocks, it’s not funny. They sought him out and tested him and he must have had a horrible time. And this is where he was able to protect him. He has what Johan Cruyff had. I have not seen many players like that. They sense when the tackle come and jump up. When you’re hit and you’re on the ground, you can get seriously hurt or injured but when you’re feet are off the ground, they sort of go with it. And it hurts less and you’ll stay fit. It’s some sort of sixth sense.”
In those days, Rijkaard allowed Messi to practice with the A-team regularly. “And that was paradise for him. Training with Ronaldinho and Silvinho. They would work for hours together. And Silvinho and Messi would go into the gym and play foot volley for hours. And fanatically. Frank and I would watch them sometimes. We enjoyed his passion for the ball. Silvinho was part of the Athletes of Jezus group from Brazil and imparted life lessons to Messi as well. That’s why Messi today is still that modest, humble, friendly bloke.”

His worst character trait? “Lionel is extremely headstrong. Again, like Cruyff. He knows everything better. He was injured in 2006 and the physio told him to rest. He ignored it. Went to do free kick practice and tore his muscle, what made him miss the Champions League finals against Arsenal. He cried like a baby, I can tell you. Frank and I had to decide whether we’d take him into the squad. We decided against it. We needed players who are fit. He locked himself up for a day in a room at the club and didn’t allow anyone in. He was simply not there in the run up to the finals, but once we had the cup, he forgot his pain and grief and partied like the best.”
“We knew Messi would outdo Ronaldinho some day. I remember sitting in our office and some paper saying that we’d get Rafael van der Vaart. I looked at Frank? We had just seen the youth team play and we had seen Iniesta and Messi and Frank said: “Nah, we don’t need Van der Vaart!”.
Henk ten Cate has a special relationship with these two and with Xavi. Ten Cate raved about Xavi when the rest of the world hadn’t discovered him. ” I do feel like their dad a bit, you know. Now I watch them and simply enjoy. But I always fear for them. The worst that can happen is that some butcher ends their career. It would be horrible if something like that would happen.

http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/barca-3-ten-cate-remembers-messi.html
 
barcanuck

barcanuck

New member
KhaledBarca said:
OLD BUT GOLD!

Barca #3: Ten Cate remembers Messi
May 21st, 2011


Frank Rijkaard and Henk ten Cate will never say they “discovered” Messi. Because no one did. Or more to the point: everybody did. But Ten Cate and Rijkaard were the coaches who brought Messi into the Barca finest for the first time.
Txiki Begiristain was the Barcelona youth coach who’d suggested a couple of Barca-youngsters to the duo, when Barca played against Porto in November 2003, to commemorate the opening of Porto’s new stadium. “It was an international weekend,” remembers Ten Cate, “And we basically missed practically our whole first team as we had a plethoria of internationals. So we went to Portugal with our B-squad and youngsters.”.
Rijkaard and Ten Cate know Messi. They saw him play before, in the youth competition. And they looked at one another. “Look at him. He’s so small. Let’s do it. Let’s bring him.” The kid started to warm up. He’s standing at the byline waiting to come on. Trembling almost. Only sixtee minutes to go. Messi is on. The ball is circulated. Fast. And one of the older hands decided to pass the ball to Messi. Really fast! But with one single move, Messi stops the ball dead. Ten Cate can talk about with relish.
“He was just 16 years old and really thin. I actually felt for him. When he touched that ball for the first time, my jaw dropped. He demonstrated his skills in those 16 minutes and a star was born, then and there.”

But this would not be his actual break into the team. “He wasn’t ready. He was more a futsol player. So we decided to move him to Barcelona B, which plays in the segunda division and that is one tough as nails league. This is because we doubted his physical powers. He had a very tough year that year. He received the most horrible knocks, it’s not funny. They sought him out and tested him and he must have had a horrible time. And this is where he was able to protect him. He has what Johan Cruyff had. I have not seen many players like that. They sense when the tackle come and jump up. When you’re hit and you’re on the ground, you can get seriously hurt or injured but when you’re feet are off the ground, they sort of go with it. And it hurts less and you’ll stay fit. It’s some sort of sixth sense.”
In those days, Rijkaard allowed Messi to practice with the A-team regularly. “And that was paradise for him. Training with Ronaldinho and Silvinho. They would work for hours together. And Silvinho and Messi would go into the gym and play foot volley for hours. And fanatically. Frank and I would watch them sometimes. We enjoyed his passion for the ball. Silvinho was part of the Athletes of Jezus group from Brazil and imparted life lessons to Messi as well. That’s why Messi today is still that modest, humble, friendly bloke.”

His worst character trait? “Lionel is extremely headstrong. Again, like Cruyff. He knows everything better. He was injured in 2006 and the physio told him to rest. He ignored it. Went to do free kick practice and tore his muscle, what made him miss the Champions League finals against Arsenal. He cried like a baby, I can tell you. Frank and I had to decide whether we’d take him into the squad. We decided against it. We needed players who are fit. He locked himself up for a day in a room at the club and didn’t allow anyone in. He was simply not there in the run up to the finals, but once we had the cup, he forgot his pain and grief and partied like the best.”
“We knew Messi would outdo Ronaldinho some day. I remember sitting in our office and some paper saying that we’d get Rafael van der Vaart. I looked at Frank? We had just seen the youth team play and we had seen Iniesta and Messi and Frank said: “Nah, we don’t need Van der Vaart!”.
Henk ten Cate has a special relationship with these two and with Xavi. Ten Cate raved about Xavi when the rest of the world hadn’t discovered him. ” I do feel like their dad a bit, you know. Now I watch them and simply enjoy. But I always fear for them. The worst that can happen is that some butcher ends their career. It would be horrible if something like that would happen.

http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/barca-3-ten-cate-remembers-messi.html
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Nice piece! Thanks for posting! :barca scarf:
 
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