Messi, soccer’s ‘humble’ superstar, arrives in Chicago for Copa America – Chicago Tribune
The crowd was tiny at first, just a handful of soccer fans and a TV cameraman perched outside a Magnificent Mile hotel, waiting for the arrival of the Argentina national soccer team.
But again and again, passers-by asked who the people had gathered to see, only to stop abruptly.
“Argentina’s coming? Messi’s going to be here?”
Lionel Messi is a household name across most of the globe, a diminutive forward regarded by many as the greatest soccer player in history. Named world player of the year a record five times, he is the top goal scorer for FC Barcelona, the mega-club he has helped to win eight domestic titles and four European championships.
He has come to town for the Copa America international tournament, and if his ailing back allows him to join his teammates for Friday’s game against Panama, it will mark the first time he has played in a nonexhibition match on U.S. soil.
Messi’s American sojourn is a window into the contours of his fame. Marketers say that while he remains a stranger to many older sports fans here, he is extremely well-known among the young, who catch his breathtaking highlights on YouTube and play as his avatar in the wildly popular FIFA video game.
“Kids spend more time playing FIFA they do playing (soccer) or even watching games,” said John Guppy of the Naperville-based Gilt Edge Soccer Marketing firm. “Most kids will pick Barcelona, and when you do that, Lionel Messi is the guy you play with more than anyone else.”
Unlike many sports stars, Messi’s renown comes almost entirely from his talent. He rarely makes news off the field — his ongoing battle with Spanish authorities over alleged tax evasion is a notable exception — and his mild persona little resembles other members of the modern athletic pantheon.
But some fans say that lack of swagger, such a contrast to his on-field sorcery, is elemental to Messi’s appeal.
“He looks like me or you,” said University of Illinois at Chicago student Kishan Patel, who has followed Messi since the early days in Barcelona. “He’s of normal stature but he’s got one goal: to score and help his team win. He’s fouled, obstructed, never complains, and in the end, he gets his goal. It’s just life-affirming in that sense.”
Humble origins
Messi’s journey from factory worker’s son to global icon reads like a folk tale.
He grew up in the port city of Rosario, Argentina, a boy much smaller than his peers but blessed with incandescent skill. One of the many online videos highlighting his childhood feats shows a 5-year-old Messi slaloming through an entire team with his distinctive stuttering stride before tapping the ball into the goal with his left foot.
He joined the youth academy of Newell’s Old Boys, a professional squad based in Rosario, but when the team reputedly balked at the $1,000-a-month therapy needed to counteract a growth hormone deficiency, the 12-year-old Messi auditioned for Barcelona.
The club signed him, though with some doubt. According to Graham Hunter’s book “Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World,” team officials didn’t agree on his potential, and a Barcelona employee paid for Messi’s hormone treatment out of his own pocket to ensure that the boy wouldn’t bolt to a rival club.
It was a wise investment. Since Messi became a fixture on Barcelona’s first team in 2006, the club has been a sensation on the field and in the marketplace, with its valuation rising from $440 million to $3.5 billion, according to Forbes.
Messi has become a potent commercial force in his own right, earning an estimated $28 million annually through endorsements. He has an eponymous shoe line from Adidas, sells more replica jerseys than anyone else and hawks brands as rarefied as Dolce & Gabbana and as basic as Pepsi.
But dollars aren’t the only sign of Messi’s prominence. Consider his Q scores, a measurement of celebrity recognition and appeal.
While only 19 percent of the general U.S. population knows who Messi is — Michael Jordan is known by 74 percent — 31 percent of those who do know him consider him one of their favorites. Henry Schafer of the Q Scores Co. said that among active athletes, only Stephen Curry does better.
“Messi has actually broken through,” Schafer said. “He has transcended soccer.”
And like Curry, who is small compared with the giants he battles in the NBA, Messi’s size appears to be a point of inspiration among the young.
“He’s little in stature, and I think a lot of kids can identify with him,” said Craig Blazer, DePaul University’s men’s soccer coach. “The idea (that) through hard work and improving your skill, you can be a successful soccer player — that seems to resonate.”
Waiting for a trophy
That sense of connection was clear in the swelling crowd awaiting Messi’s arrival Tuesday night. Children clutched soccer balls and Sharpies, hoping to snag an autograph, while their parents talked about their own appreciation of Messi.
“Besides being a really good player, he’s humble, he’s a really nice person,” said Brener Garcia, who brought his 7-year-old son Deijan to the hotel. “That’s why he’s special for me.”
Argentina has the world’s top-ranked national team, but since Messi has been a part of it, the squad has failed to win a major international title. That has cast a shadow on his achievements, but Lilia Charcas, a native of Argentina who was waiting for a glimpse of Messi with her son Facundo Clavijo, 11, said she believed exorcism was at hand.
“This is something everyone has been waiting for for many years,” she said. “He has been judged for (the championship drought). I think this is the time, and we’re going to do it.”
The sidewalk congregation grew steadily until 11:30 p.m., when a luxury tour bus turned the corner and stopped at a side entrance. As Chicago police and unsmiling, dark-suited men formed a gantlet, Argentina’s players, dressed in the national colors of white and light blue, scurried to the hotel door.
A few of the 60 or so people gathered around the bus shouted greetings to famous players like Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero and Paris Saint-Germain winger Angel Di Maria. But when Messi finally appeared, elfin, bearded and seemingly oblivious to the commotion, the crowd shrieked as one:
“Leo! Leo!”
He was gone within seconds. The impression he made seemed likely to last much longer.
“I’m almost in tears,” said an exhilarated Ilean Pedral, who stumbled onto the scene on her way home from work. “It’s not really common for me to be fan-girling over something, but it’s just something about him. He’s so talented. I don’t even know. He’s amazing. He’s amazing. That’s all I can say.”
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