Cristina Cubero, a renowned Spanish sports journalist, remembers a 14-year-old Messi who barely spoke in the FC Barcelona dressing room. He watched everything in silence while his teammates joked around.
Worried because the boy could not find his place, the journalist called Ronaldinho and asked him to look after him on and off the pitch. The Brazilian’s response was a premonition: “I’ll look after him, but this kid is going to be better than me”.
Shortly afterward, Leo asked her a question she never forgot: if he ever played for the National Team, would she be there with him? Cubero said yes without hesitation.
And when Messi was called up for the first time to face Hungary, he called her to keep that promise. She took a plane and traveled to be with him. There, amid jokes about how quiet he was for an Argentine, Leo replied with something that defines him to this day: “I prefer to listen. That’s who I am”.