Sunday, December 26, 2010

Video evidence of Lionel Messi's decade-old napkin contract

On December 14, 2000, a 13-year-old Lionel Messi, who was only slightly smaller and a shade less amazing than he is now, hurriedly signed one of world football's most important contracts on a restaurant napkin. The Telegraph tells the whimsical (and true!) tale:

Messi made a massive impression on that first visit as a 13-year-old, running rings around the big kids in Barça's already outstanding youth teams and his father threatened to fly him back home if the club didn't sign him straight away. So Charly Rexach, the club's sporting director, called for the barman at their restaurant meeting and scribbled a contract on what now hangs in Messi's lawyer's office as the most celebrated paper napkin in sporting history.

"He is priceless now," beams Rexach.

Just think where Messi might be today if his father hadn't been so pushy. Would he be in the Premier League, getting his legs savagely broken by challenges from Karl Henry and Nigel De Jong? Would he still be in Argentina, largely unknown to the northern hemisphere and only rated a 79 in FIFA 11? Would he be at Real Madrid? Or, less interestingly, would he have signed for Barcelona in a more traditional and reasonable manner several days later? The world will never know! 

That napkin (0:33 into the video) is already one of the most important documents in sports history, though. Far more important than the beach towel Harry Redknapp wrote on in 1996 to remind himself not to care about tactics. 

Amanda Bynes Ana Ivanovi Jessica Cauffiel Emmanuelle Vaugier Sarah Silverman

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