Barcelona Icons Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez And Co open Up About How They Transformed From Ordinary Kids On The Playground To Global Superstars
Even the greatest footballers in the world must start somewhere. Whether that be Barcelona's famed La Masia academy or rock-laden pitches in Argentina, each path to the top is unique and special to those who walk it.
Barcelona boast some of the game's greatest talents. Players who have achieved everything at the club, and some who are just beginning their journey.
But what is certain is that they have earned their right to be there.
Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Gerard Pique, Ivan Rakitic, Arda Turan and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen have taken time to reminisce about their transformations from ordinary kids on the playground to household names at one of the world's most revered clubs.
In a video by the club's partner Beko, Suarez reveals his childhood footballing heroes, Rakitic recalls scoring 18 goals in a game and Pique names La Masia as his 'second home'.
Although some pitches seem a far cry from the lush grass at the Nou Camp and the plush training facilities at Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, they all played their part in forming some of the best footballers of a generation.
LIONEL MESSI
A five-time Ballon d'Or winner, Lionel Messi needs little introduction. The forward was raised in the Rosario, Argentina, and began to play for his boyhood team Grandoli Club.
Messi started his footballing journey at just three years old on a ground which was starkly dissimilar to that where he currently plies his trade.
The 30-year-old recalled the poor playing surfaces at his local club, filled with dirt and rocks rather than the heavily treated hybrid grass which lays at the Nou Camp.
Lionel Messi holds a photo of the ground he began his football at in Rosario — Grandoli Club
The forward began playing for Grandoli when he was just three or four years of age
But the diminutive Argentine wasted little time in grabbing the attention of the Catalan giants and made the move to Spain at the age of 13 — and never looked back.
Until now, that is, when the Argentina international recalled his upbringing in Rosario and his early days at Grandoli. ‘This is Grandoli Club, where I started playing when I was three or four years old,' Messi said while holding a photo of his old stomping ground.
'The club where all the family used to go and where I started playing. As you can see there is a pitch with not much grass, filled with dirt, even some rocks.
I don’t like to give advice, but if I have to say something, I would tell you to enjoy what football is, to learn how to win, to learn how to lose, and above all, to enjoy.’
Messi said the pitch at Grandoli was filled with dirt and even some rocks while he was there .
Luis Suarez has trodden a slightly different road to the Nou Camp. Raised in Salto, which borders Argentina, the striker moved to Montevideo in the south aged just seven.
It was here where he began his sporting journey. He started to play junior football for his local club in Montevideo, Urreta.
Suarez revealed his favourite players as a child were Uruguay legend Enzo Francescoli and Argentina great Gabriel Batistuta.
Luis Suarez holds a photograph of the place where his football began — Urreta