Have you ever seen Messi’s name Lionel familiar, similar to the name of a certain famous character? That familiar feeling turned out to be well-founded. Lionel Messi is named after the famous singer Lionel Richie.

Messi was born in 1987, just a year after Lionel Richie released the hit album “Dancing on the Ceiling”. As crazy fans of Lionel Richie, Messi’s parents decided to give their son Lionel the same name as the idol.

Go to the Spanish dictionary

There are many different ways to honor Messi’s outstanding playing talent. In it, the compilers of the Spanish dictionary have a very unique way. In 2017, they created a new word inspired by Messi.

That’s the word “inmessionante”. The word means “the perfect way to play football”. If any player is described by the word “inmessionante”, it is indeed a great honor.

Messi is the inspiration for the new word added to the Spanish dictionary

Is distantly related to Bojan Krkic

Messi turns out to be Bojan’s cousin. The two are related for four generations. Messi and Bojan share the same ancestor Mariano Perez Miralles in Spain.

Roughly speaking, the Messi family and the Bojan family share roots in 19th century Spain. It is no coincidence that members of the Messi family and members of the Bojan family share the same middle name, Perez.

The other two cousins are also players

In addition to his distant cousin Bojan, who also shares the same color as Barca, Messi also has two other cousins who also play professionally. The first is midfielder Emmanuel Biancucchi. One year younger than Messi, Emmanuel Biancucchi grew up in the training camp of Newell’s Old Boys after many years of traveling through Germany, Paraguay, Brazil and Peru, and then returned to work for Newell’s Old Boys.

The second is striker Maxi Biancucchi. 3 years older than Messi, Maxi Biancucchi played his whole career for teams in the Americas. At the teams he joined, Maxi Biancucchi was often called by his teammates by the nickname Messi’s cousin.

Meaningful celebration

After each scoring situation, Messi often raises two index fingers and faces the sky. This is Messi’s way of paying tribute to his grandmother Celia Olivera Cuccittini.

Celia Olivera has a special role in Messi’s career. It was she who urged Messi’s parents to buy him the first football boots in his life. It was she who wholeheartedly encouraged Messi to pursue a professional football career. She herself once affirmed: “One day you will become the best tennis player in the world”. Unfortunately, Messi’s grandmother passed away in 1998, when he was just 11 years old.

Impressions from oranges and felt balls

Messi’s first agent, Fabian Soldini, revealed that Barca scouts had “fallen in love” with Messi right after watching a video of him demonstrating his skills in throwing oranges and tennis balls.

Soldini said: “I still vividly remember the day I went to give Lionel a pound of oranges and some tennis balls. I told him to practice throwing oranges and playing tennis very well so that he could come back a week later. A week later, Lionel raised the orange with 113 touches and the tennis ball with 120 touches. I sent the tape to Barcelona and they told me to introduce Lionel immediately.”

Messi = Ronaldinho + Deco

This is shirt number equality. When he first joined Barca’s first team, Messi wore the number 30 shirt. The seemingly innocuous number 30 turned out to be very meaningful to Messi.

Messi’s golden feet sold for 5.25 million USD

That day, Messi was specially trained by two Barca stars, Ronaldinho and Deco. Messi chose the number 30, which is simply the addition of Ronaldino’s number (10) and Deco’s number (20).

Shy like Messi

Those who have known Messi before all have the same comment that from childhood to adulthood, he is quite shy in communication. Messi finds it very difficult to talk to someone on the phone.

So Messi was afraid to call. Whatever he discussed with anyone, he often chose the texting option.