Lionel Messi wasn’t always a gifted free-kicker. On the way there it took a lot of hard work – and a little help from a legend. Will he meet FC Liverpool again in the UEFA Champions League semi-final return leg (Tue, 21:00 live on DAZN)?
One day in the summer of 2005 there was hectic activity on the grounds of the legendary La Masia Junior Academy, a stone’s throw from Camp Nou in Barcelona. A camera team was a guest and took pictures of the work in the famous talent factory, the pride and joy of the Blaugrana. Among the videos that were shot were short clips of some young stars. “Remember my name”, the talents should each say into the camera and then sink a free kick into the goal.
A task that some youngsters tackled with a lot of self-confidence, others were much more shy. Among the teenagers was a young Argentinian named Lionel Messi. He had already made his debut for the pros, but was still allowed to participate in the commercials.
Roger Giribet was one of today’s superstar’s teammates when he was a teenager, and he remembers exactly how the shootings went at SOCCERSCORE and Goal: “All the players needed at least two or three tries. Except Messi. He was the only one who hit it right away and within 30 seconds he was done. The cameramen were also impressed.”
At that time Messi was already hinting with a beautiful shot into the angle, what a great talent he has on the resting ball. A skill that has now made him the best free-kicker in the world: He has scored 31 free-kicks over the past ten years, Cristiano Ronaldo 20 and Miralem Pjanic 16, but ironically, in the summer of 2005, La Pulga hadn’t even thought of doing so because he hadn’t been able to improve his technique on the resting ball and wasn’t even allowed to kick the free-kicks in his youth team.
Former team-mate Giribet explains: “He had hardly shot any free kicks in La Masia before that performance. Victor Vazquez, who was really good at that, and left-footed Juanjo Clausi mostly competed, Messi hardly ever.”
In general, this discipline did not enjoy any priority in the youth work of the Catalans. Barcelona was about playing forms, technique and overview. It’s not about drilling the players in hours of sessions.
Former La Masia boss Albert Benaiges confirms this approach with SOCCERSCORE and Goal: “We didn’t practice it. We had one or two exercises with a free-kick wall and then we gave some advice. But it was definitely not one of the areas that was worked on particularly hard.”
According to Giribet, he, Messi and some other special shifts wanted to put in after the training and to improve the shooting technique. But this was only possible “if we were still allowed to go to the square”.
However, they did receive some useful tips. The former Barcelona B coach is Guillermo Hoyos, who now works for Universidad de Chile. “I think it was him who explained to us how to put the ball down correctly,” says Giribet: “His advice was to put the ball down with the valve on so that it could lower itself more easily in flight.
Messi absorbed the tips like a sponge. Nevertheless, he did not appear as the free kick god at the beginning of his breathtaking professional career. Rather, his progress was the result of hard work – and advice from Diego Maradona.
The two Albiceleste legends had an aha experience in February 2009. Maradona was Argentina’s national coach at the time and Messi was his star player. During a training session at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille, Messi kicked free kick after free kick, but nobody made it to the finish. The Barca ace was increasingly frustrated before Maradona took care of him.
Maradona’s assistant coach Fernando Signorini told La Nacion exactly what happened at the time: “I saw Maradona go to him. He grabbed his shoulder and said, ‘Little Leo, little Leo, come to me for a minute. Let’s try it again.’ You were like a teacher and his student.”
He added: “Maradona told him: ‘You must put the ball down like this and when you hit it, you must not pull your foot back so quickly. The ball has no other idea what you want from it.’ Then he stroked the ball with his left foot right into the crease and Messis face showed pure admiration.”
As a result Messi worked harder on his free kick technique and the successes came more and more. The highlight of the match was a 3-0 free-kick in the first leg against Liverpool last Wednesday, which was an unstoppable hit for Reds keeper Alisson.
Messis’ skills not only amaze fans, but also old companions like Albert Benaiges: “Compared to before, he kicks his free kicks differently today and we didn’t teach him that in La Masia. It’s more like part of his skill that he’s been working on himself. And his experience certainly helped him.”
At that time, in the summer of 2005, people were still positively surprised when Messi immediately sunk the free kick in front of the camera. Today, his exploits border on normality.
