Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo - 2017 Updated Edition E-Book

Luca Caioli

• Herausgeber: Icon Books
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Luca Caioli
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 221

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo have risen from humble beginnings in Argentina, Brazil and Portugal to rank among the most exciting talents football has ever seen. Now Luca Caioli, author of biographies of Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar, asks: 'Who is the greatest of them all?' Comparing their contrasting styles, stories, records and awards, he gives you everything you need to decide who comes out on top. With exclusive insights from their friends, families, teammates and managers, Caioli presents a unique insight into what makes a modern player not just successful, but truly great.

Leseprobe

MESSI NEYMAR RONALDO

MESSI NEYMAR RONALDO

HEAD TO HEAD WITH THE WORLD’S GREATEST PLAYERS

LUCA CAIOLI

Published in the UK and USA in 2016 by

Icon Books Ltd, Omnibus Business Centre,

39–41 North Road, London N7 9DP

email: [email protected]

www.iconbooks.com

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Distributed in the USA

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ISBN: 978-178578-111-7

Text copyright © 2016 Luca Caioli

Translation copyright © 2016 Sheli Rodney

The author has asserted his moral rights.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Typeset in New Baskerville by Marie Doherty

Printed and bound in the UK by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

About the author

Luca Caioli is the bestselling author of Messi, Ronaldo and Torres. A renowned Italian sports journalist, he lives in Spain.

Contents

Introduction

1 Childhood

2 The first time

3 Fathers

4 Turning point

5 Club

6 Country

7 Style and abilities

8 Secrets of success

9 Partners

10 Kids

11 Duels

12 Numbers

13 Money

14 Branding

15 Social media

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Who is the greatest of them all? The best in the world? We are always asking that question. It is part of the culture of football, the collective history of lovers of the beautiful game.

It is a question that has divided and continues to divide experts, fans and entire generations. We relish any opportunity to compare and analyse – style, movement, a great play, a free kick, an assist, a goal, a match, a tournament, a World Cup, a Ballon d’Or win. We revel in opinion polls in the papers, on news sites and blogs, and pore over results and statistics. We delight in endless debates. Opinion is divided between rival fans, admirers and detractors, different nationalities. And because the collective footballing memory is a fundamental part of the experience, there is always something that evokes another player, another league, another era. This is part of the charm of being just another link in the footballing chain, this constant oscillation between present and past, without which the game would lose something of its fascination.

Who is the best? Pelé or Maradona, Di Stéfano or Cruyff, Zidane or Platini, Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima or Van Basten? It’s a question that has been asked thousands of times, in print, on the radio, on TV. It’s a debate that draws in everyone from coaches, players and pundits to the man on the street. Everyone has their own taste, their own opinion, their own idol.

Now the debate centres around Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior. Who is the best of the three? Is Messi better than Maradona? Can Cristiano outdo Eusebio? Will Neymar ever overtake Messi, or rise to the heights of fellow countryman ‘O Rei’ Pelé?

While there may not be a definitive answer to be found in these pages, there is plenty of room for opinions and analysis of the three players’ journeys to stardom, their style and abilities, their achievements both on and off the pitch, their similarities and differences. The idea is simply to present the facts and figures – the key to unlocking the stories behind the three best footballers in the world. Then you may draw your own conclusions.

Chapter 1

Childhood

On 23 June 1987 Celia Cuccittini is admitted to the maternity ward at the Garibaldi hospital in Rosario, Argentina. The Messi-Cuccittinis’ two sons – Rodrigo, seven, and Matias, five – stay at home with their grandmother, while Jorge Messi accompanies his wife to the hospital. After two boys he would have liked a girl, but the chromosomes dictate that they are to have another boy.

The pregnancy has been uneventful, but during the final few hours complications arise. Gynaecologist Norberto Odetto diagnoses severe foetal distress and decides to induce labour to avoid any lasting effects on the baby. To this day, Jorge can recall the fear of those moments, the panic he felt when the doctor told him that he was going to use forceps, his plea that he do everything possible to avoid using those pincers, which worried him greatly after hearing horror stories about deformity and damage to new babies. In the end the forceps are not needed.

A few minutes before six in the morning on 24 June, Lionel Andrés Messi is born, three kilos in weight and 47 centimetres long, as red as a tomato and with one ear completely folded over due to the force of labour – anomalies which, as with many other newborns, disappeared within the first few hours. After the scare comes happiness: the new arrival is a little bit pink, but healthy.

On Tuesday 5 February 1985 at 10.20am in the Cruz de Carvalho Hospital in Funchal, capital of Madeira Island, Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is born. He is 52 centimetres long and weighs four kilos. A fourth child for María Dolores dos Santos and José Dinis Aveiro, younger brother to Hugo, Elma and Katia. It was an unplanned pregnancy, nine years after the birth of Katia, and now there is the issue of what to name him. ‘My sister, who was working in an orphanage at the time, said that if it was a boy we could name him Cristiano,’ recalls Dolores. ‘I thought it was a good choice. And my husband and I both liked the name Ronaldo, after Ronald Reagan. My sister chose Cristiano and we chose Ronaldo.’

Seven years later on the very same date, 5 February 1992, Neymar da Silva Santos is born at 2.15am in Mogi das Cruzes in São Paulo, Brazil. Nadine Gonçalves’ waters had broken the day before and she had been admitted to Santa Casa de Misericordia, a huge white and blue building nestled between the narrow lanes of the city centre. It’s a natural birth, no complications. He weighs 3.8 kilos, and both mother and baby are doing well. Neymar’s parents didn’t know they were having a boy – the prenatal scan was too pricey.

At first they are looked after by Doctor Luiz Carlos Bacci – no longer alive today – and then later discharged by Benito Klei. Klei is a União fan, and he knows the baby is the son of a União player. But it is only years later, upon seeing the birth certificate again, that he will realise he helped bring a Barcelona superstar into the world.

So, what to call the little guy? The parents haven’t decided on a name for their firstborn. At first Nadine proposes Mateus, and his father agrees. They test it out for a week, but they’re not convinced. Finally, when Neymar senior goes to register his son, he changes his mind and opts for his own name: Neymar, with the addition of ‘Júnior’. The family will all come to call him ‘Juninho’.

Lionel ‘Leo’ Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar Júnior are all born into humble families.

Jorge Messi is the head of department at steel manufacturer Acindar, in Villa Constitución, some 50 kilometres outside Rosario. Mother Celia works in a magnet manufacturing workshop. They own their own home, which Jorge built over many weekends with his father Eusebio on a 300-square-metre plot of family land. It’s a two-storey, brick building with a backyard, in Las Heras, a neighbourhood of humble, hardworking people in the southern part of Rosario.

The three-bedroom concrete council house where Cristiano was born no longer exists. In 2007, the house at 27A Quinta do Falcão, in the Santo António neighbourhood of Funchal, was demolished to avoid problems with squatters. On many occasions Cristiano’s mother has to go to the town council for bricks and mortar to repair the leaks in the property after a storm. Money is tight in the Aveiro family. Dinis is a gardener for the council, while María Dolores works as a cook so that she can ensure her kids get meals every day. Like thousands of other Portuguese citizens, she had emigrated to France at the age of twenty, where she spent three months cleaning houses in Paris. Her husband intended to join her but was unable to, and she had to return to Madeira.

Neymar’s father is a professional footballer for União Mogi das Cruzes Futebol Club, a team in Mogi das Cruzes that plays in the São Paulo state A3 league. The salary is nothing special, but it’s enough to live on fairly comfortably. The club also pays the rent on a modest condo at 593 Ezelindo da Cunha Glória Road, in the Rodeio neighbourhood, three kilometres from the city centre. It is here that Neymar Júnior spends the first few years of his life, together with Nadine, who is a housewife.

There is not a lot of money to spare in any of the three families, but all ensure that their children have happy childhoods. Football is, naturally, a recurring theme.

‘One Christmas I gave Cristiano a remote-controlled car, thinking that would keep him busy,’ recalls Fernão Sousa, the Madrid player’s godfather. ‘But no – he preferred the football. He slept with his ball, it never left his side. It was always under his arm – wherever he went, it went with him.’

One of Ronaldo’s teachers, María dos Santos, remembers her former pupil as ‘well behaved, fun and a good friend to his classmates’. When asked about his favourite pastime, she says: ‘From the day he walked through the door, football was his favourite sport. If there wasn’t a real ball around for him and his friends, they would make one out of socks. He would always find a way of playing football in the playground.’

It was football in the playground and football in the street. ‘When he got home from school, I used to tell him to go to his room and do his homework,’ says Dolores. ‘He always told me he didn’t have any. So I would go and start the cooking and he would chance his luck. He would climb out the window, grab a yoghurt or some fruit, and run away with the ball under his arm. He’d be out playing until 9.30 at night.’ As if that wasn’t enough, he began to skip classes to go out and play.

As her son would later acknowledge: ‘I was always playing football with my friends, that’s what I loved doing, that was how I spent my time.’

He plays in the street because there is no football pitch in the neighbourhood. One particular street, Quinta do Falcão, proves to be a challenge when buses, cars and motorbikes want to get through. The kids have to remove the stones marking out the goalposts each time and wait for the traffic to pass before resuming the game. The matches they play are intense battles between gangs of friends. They are games that never end. The only hiccup is when the ball lands in one of the neighbours’ gardens – and if it’s old Mr Agostinho’s, he always threatens to puncture the ball.

The football makes plenty of appearances in early photos of Neymar Júnior. He can be seen in a Santos FC shirt from a young age, with a black and white ball under his arm. Nadine remembers a time when she was out buying potatoes in a market, when Juninho was just two years old. He let go of her hand and darted across the street after spying a little yellow plastic ball. And she recalls – as does Neymar himself – that he used to fall asleep hugging a football. Years later, he would come to accumulate 54 balls in his bedroom. His father was amazed when, at barely three years old, rather than grabbing a ball with his hands and saying ‘it’s mine’ like most kids, little Neymar would always retrieve the ball with his feet.

Leo Messi, meanwhile, prefers marbles at the age of three. He wins mountains of them from his playmates and his bag is always full of them. He always has time for round objects, both at nursery and at school. For his fourth birthday, his parents give him a white ball with red diamonds. It is then, perhaps, that the fatal attraction begins. And one day he surprises everyone – his father and brothers are playing in the street and Leo decides to join the game for the first time. On many other occasions he had preferred to keep winning marbles, but not this time. ‘We were stunned when we saw what he could do,’ says Jorge. ‘He had never played before.’

All three players have always been obsessed with the ball. ‘The football is the most jealous woman in the world,’ admits Neymar. ‘If you don’t treat her well, she will stop loving you and hurt you. I love her like crazy.’

Chapter 2

The first time

Rosario, Grandoli football ground, a summer afternoon in 1992

‘I needed one more to complete the team of children born in ’86. I was waiting for the final player with the shirt in my hands while the others were warming up. But he didn’t show up and there was this little kid kicking the ball against the stands. The cogs were turning and I said to myself, damn … I don’t know if he knows how to play but … So I went to speak to Celia, his grandmother, who was really into football, and I said to her: “Lend him to me.” She wanted to see him on the pitch. She had asked me many times to let him try out. On several occasions she would tell me about all the little guy’s talents. The mother, or the aunt, I can’t remember which, didn’t want him to play: “He’s so small, the others are all huge.” To reassure her I told her, “I’ll put him over here, and if they attack him I’ll stop the game and take him off.”

‘So I gave him the shirt and he put it on. The first ball came his way, he looked at it and … nothing. He’s left-footed, that’s why he didn’t get to the ball. The second time it came to his left foot. He latched onto it and went past one guy, then another and another. I was yelling at him: “Kick it, kick it.” I was terrified someone would hurt him but he kept going and going. I don’t remember if he scored the goal – I had never seen anything like it. I said to myself, “That one’s never coming off.” And I never took him off.’

Salvador Ricardo Aparicio – Don Apa, as he is known – tells the story of Leo Messi’s first outing on a football pitch.

* * *

São Vicente, Itararé beach, end of 1998

‘I went to watch a match between Tumiaru and Recanto da Vila. I was distracted by my son – I turned round to see where he had got to, and I noticed a tiny kid, with short hair and skinny legs. He was running up and down the makeshift stands they had put up for the event. He was running with total ease, as though he were running on a completely flat surface, no obstacles. He never hesitated. His agility and coordination impressed me. It was something rare in such a young, small kid. That’s what stood out for me. It was like a light bulb moment, and I asked a friend who he was. He said he was Neymar’s son, the guy playing for Recanto who had just missed a penalty. I took a good look at the father: strong physique and good ball control. I looked at Nadine, the mother, who was there watching: she was tall and slim. It was immediately obvious the kid had good genes. I found myself casually wondering how he would handle the ball.

‘Back then I was the coach at Tumiaru. At the end of the match I went over to talk to the father to see if he would let me take him for a tryout. He agreed, and I took the boy over to play. The first time I saw him touch the ball, my heart began to pound as I sensed what a star he could turn out to be. Football was an innate ability for him. He already had his own style, even at six years of age. He had speed and balance and he invented imaginative tricks of his own. He loved to dribble, he knew how to shoot and he wasn’t afraid of his opponents. He was different from the others, you could put him in the midst of 200 other kids his age, and even then he would shine.’

Roberto Antonio dos Santos, aka Betinho, delightedly recalls the first time he saw Neymar Júnior, and the discovery of the superstar everyone is talking about.

* * *

Funchal, Andorinha football ground, autumn 1993

‘Football was what Cristiano lived for. He was fast, he was technically brilliant and he played equally well with his left and right foot. He was skinny but he was a head taller than other kids his age. He was undoubtedly extremely gifted – he had a natural talent that was in the genes. He was always chasing the ball, he wanted to be the one to finish the game. He was very focused, he worked equally hard regardless of where he was on the pitch. And whenever he couldn’t play or he missed a game he was devastated.’ Primary school-teacher Francisco Afonso, who taught Cristiano’s sister Katia, has dedicated 25 years to coaching in the Madeira junior leagues. He was Ronaldo’s first coach and he has never forgotten the first time he saw the footballer play.

Neither has Andorinha president Rui Santos: ‘A footballer like Ronaldo doesn’t come along every day. And suddenly when he does, you realise he’s different from all the other kids you’ve seen play.’

Chapter 3

Fathers

No one can dispute that it’s an innate talent, or that football is a true passion for Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar. But what impact have the three stars’ fathers had on their education, early choices and decision to make the game they love their profession? And how have they been involved in managing their sons’ careers? There is no shortage of stories of famous sports stars whose parents have played a fundamental role through good times and bad.

Iranian-born Emmanuel ‘Mike’ Agassi was one such parent dedicated to making his son a tennis star. When Andre was just thirteen, his father is said to have modified a machine so that it would serve him tennis balls at 180 kilometres per hour. Car lover José Luis Alonso built a racing kart for his Formula One star son when little Fernando Alonso was just three. And Vietnam War veteran Earl Woods became his son’s coach and trainer from the day Tiger could hold a golf club, also at the age of three.

Parents and siblings are the first source of encouragement, the first captains. Their values, style and passion can become deeply ingrained, and their actions can determine the path of their offspring. In some cases, however, those offspring can feel frustrated that a parent might be trying to fulfil their own dreams through their children.

Let’s consider the roles of Jorge Messi, Neymar da Silva Santos and José Dinis Aveiro.

‘I loved playing football,’ recalls Jorge. ‘I used to think about it from the moment I woke up until I went to sleep, and this may well have been passed on to Leo. But I was never one of those frustrated footballers who wanted their child to be a champion at all costs. I never aspired to that. It was my mother-in-law who took Leo to play, not me. Yes, I was his coach for a year at Grandoli, but I didn’t act as a personal coach. I enjoyed watching him play – I never imagined he would go so far!

‘I was betting on my elder son Rodrigo, who was a good striker. He grew up at Newell’s, went on to Central Córdoba and played as a reserve in the first division, but he had a motorbike accident that kept him out for a year. After that he trialled in Chile, and then I took him out to Barcelona to see if he could find a good team in Spain or elsewhere in Europe.’

Jorge Messi might not have been betting on Leo, but he still does everything he can to help his son become a success. He takes him to famed Argentine team River Plate, and then accompanies him to Barcelona so that thirteen-year-old Leo can try out for the youth academy. He wants the best for his son. And when the club wants to sign Lionel, his father takes care of everything. To justify the family having to move to the Ciudad Condal, the club offers Jorge a salary as a match reporter. He has since dedicated himself completely to his son’s career, also acting in an advisory role.

‘Ever since I was little, he has always told me if I’ve played well or not after a match. But that’s it, he doesn’t analyse the rest,’ says Lionel. Meanwhile Jorge has been his son’s spokesperson, agent and general assistant; he negotiates and agrees contracts, as well as publicity deals.

When Leo’s mother Celia and siblings Matías and María Sol have to return to their hometown of Rosario after living in Barcelona, Jorge stays with Lionel. These would be the toughest years for the player, but having his father with him makes things easier. ‘We spend a lot of time together, we are friends, although we have our ups and downs,’ says Leo.

For Jorge it has meant transition from skilled labourer to manager, under the name of Leo Messi Management: ‘It has not been easy, I have had to learn the ropes. I have figured it out along the way. I have had to shield him for his own good from the expectations of people who might do him harm.’

Ironically, he has not been able to shield his son from himself. Jorge is in charge of managing the player’s finances, and the Spanish tax authorities believe that not everything is in order. In 2013, the public prosecutor charges him and Leo with failure to declare earnings made through image rights between 2007 and 2009. According to the charges, the Messis owed 4.1 million euros in unpaid tax, a sum which has now been paid up, with interest, to the courts, in the hope of mitigating any punishment. But the payment does not help them avoid a court appearance, which takes place on 2 June 2016, just a few days before the start of the Centenary Copa América. The state attorney is the only one calling for jail time, not only for the father, but for the footballer himself: 22 months and fifteen days, to be exact.

Leo reiterates his position to the judge: ‘My father deals with the money, I play the football.’ In his fifteen minute statement he insists that ‘I trusted my father and the lawyers we had hired to take care of things. At no point did it occur to me that they would dupe me.’ Lionel acknowledges that he would go along to a notary’s office to ‘sign things’, without really knowing the details. He kept his enquiries to the bare minimum and his father filled him in only briefly. ‘I knew we were signing agreements with sponsors who were giving X amount of money. And that I had to do publicity appearances, photos, that sort of thing. But I have no idea where the money was going.’ Jorge confirms this, asserting that the player was not aware of anything. ‘We gave him the documents and he signed them.’ But the family patriarch is also pleading his own case, insisting that he completely trusted his accountants. According to him, they were the ones who created a corporate structure based in tax havens without Jorge’s knowledge, in order to avoid tax on Leo’s image rights earnings.

But state attorney Mario Maza is having none of it. ‘The man at the top has no idea what’s going on. Leo Messi doesn’t go to meet the lawyers because he is so focused on his performance. That’s what he’s paid for and that’s what keeps all the FC Barcelona fans happy, including myself,’ he says sarcastically. He is convinced the Flea knows more than he was willing to admit, and he makes a scathing accusation. ‘I don’t want to compare Messi with a “mafioso”, but it is as if he was the “capo” of a criminal structure,’ he ventures.

While the Messis await the judge’s verdict, there is another issue pending which could end up in the courts … the player’s name is one of the first to surface in relation to the so called ‘Panama Papers’. According to the leaked information, he and his father formed a shell company in Panama that allegedly served as a tax haven for his image rights deals. The company, called Mega Star Enterprises, was apparently formed just one day after Lionel and his father were separately accused of the 4.1 million euro tax fraud. The family quickly releases a statement denying any wrongdoing. ‘The Panamanian company referred to in the reports is a completely inactive company, which never held open accounts nor funds and which comes from the former company structure put in place by Messi’s previous financial advisors, the fiscal consequences of which have already been normalised, with all the income that comes from exploitation of his image rights, prior to and after the procedure carried out in the courts, having been declared before the Spanish Treasury.’ For now, the Treasury is investigating the accusations unearthed by the Panama Papers. Their veracity is still unconfirmed. Nonetheless, the player’s image has once again been caught up in uncertain financial matters.

* * *