Leo, the atypical hero

The night that Leo Messi broke the record of Zarra as top scorer of the League, he embraced the ball with which he had scored three goals and joked with his teammates while a video homage was projected in the stadium. When he left the field, it was not known until he broke another record: the highest goal scorer in the Champions League. Messi does not like to speak in public. He hardly articulated a word before a packed Camp Nou after winning the Champions League and the League in 2011: "I promised that I would speak, here I am. I have nothing to tell you ... "he stammered.

Something similar lived Argentina's locker room during the World Cup in South Africa. "Two days he was thinking what to say. In the end he said something, but he got stuck because he did not know how to continue, "says Verón in Messi, Leo Faccio's book. Neither did he at Mestalla a few days ago, when he was hit by a bottle thrown from the stands. It hurt. But he did not protest. Not even after seeing a yellow card for wasting time. "He does not dramatize. He always wants to continue playing. He is not interested in anything else, "Argentine journalist Ezequiel Fernández Moores says from Buenos Aires.

Anyone knows who Messi is, how he looks from the right wing and skirts the area to test his left and the goalkeeper on duty. But few people know him. One of the best performers is Faccio. "Messi," he says, "is an atypical hero." And he explains: "We are used to the stars, but he has a private life that seems impervious to his public life. Leo is unrecognizable when leaving the field. Play at Barça, but live in Rosario. " Although his Argentina does not admit doubts, yes that there are compatriots that doubt him. "Maradona is pure extroversion. Messi is the opposite: apart from being a soccer genius, he just wants to be a normal person. In Argentina there are many people who still venerate the warlike image of Diego and who is not attracted to the silent leader of Messi. They do not forgive him for not winning anything with La Albiceleste ", explains Fernández Moores. And he closes: "Dealing with the pressure of having to win always demands a lot".