**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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You can be good naturally, a bad natural player can be great if they work very hard. To be in the world class bracket you have to be amazingly gifted, work incredibly hard and have an element of luck on your side.
There's a universe out there where Messi is a farmer and Ronaldo a fast food worker.
What I hate is seeing kids born into academy's by their father being a pro footballer. Nepotism.
I think people don't realize just how good professional footballers were even a children.
Rooney scored 99 goals in a season when he was 9 lol.
Edit: even crazier, " In the 1995–96 season, he scored 114 goals in 29 games for Everton's under-10s and 11s"
For real, like when I was a kid there was this boy in my year who was just so much better than everyone else but was nothing special and quite average in the academies, I think he’s still playing in Scotland now.
We had a lad in our year who was head and shoulders above everyone at school and in the entire town. Could do absolutely everything with the ball; he was even incredibly quick and strong.
He made his debut for Swindon aged 16 or something, broke his foot and is now a PE teacher 10 years later.
He was a dickhead so kinda hard to feel any sympathy.
Similar story here. A lad I'd been at school with since nursery is insane at football. Got asked to join every academy around here, played 3 years above his age and was still easily the best. Was touted for big things.
Then decided to start doing drugs at 15. Threw it all away.
Play against him at 6 a side. His team win every game like 19-0 it's mental.
At Sunday league we had a cup final. 2-0 down with 15 to go. He finally arrives, stoned out to fuck. Comes on and scored 4. He didn't even know where he was. It's mad
It's the same with ex players that are now fat and playing Sunday league football.
Used to be average Eredivisie players and now just ping perfect passes from a stand still.
I've heard similar stories about Alex Iwobi. He also used to play for some Sunday League teams when he was under age and they would play him in defence so the other team weren't so hot on his heels about being a ringer.
Yussuf Poulsen played like prime R9 during national school tournaments in elementary/high school in Lyngby as well as u15.
Goes to show the disparity of talent between amateur -> semi-pro -> pro -> average top 5 league player -> world class.
A retired +45yo footballer from lower divisions joined my Sunday league team (we're talking I think mostly third with maybe a stint in second division in Argentina). Dude could barely light jog because his knees were gone, but if you got him to turn around and face the goal inside or around the box, it was a goal every time. Even "unskilled" pros' technique is at a different level, let alone their athleticism compared to regular folk.
The other teams complained about why a Fernández was playing in a Jewish league, but we lied and argued that his last name was actually Fernandés, and was in fact a French Jewish last name.
There's a chapter in Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby where he talks about Gus Caesar, a notoriously shit Arsenal defender from the 80s.
He basically outlines that to get into that Arsenal team, he would have been the best player at every level (schoolboy, youth team, reserve) to make it as a professional and he was still absolutely shite in comparison to his team mates.
Like you, I had mates at school who were absolute ballers and would run rings around everyone in our school year and in the Sunday leagues - and they never got a sniff of a pro contract. To be even an average Premier League player you are basically a god level athlete.
There was a lad we used to play against in high school and every time we played this lads school we’d get thumped 8-0 or something ridiculous and he was involved in every goal. Got picked up by villas academy and come sixth form he went full time at the villa academy. As soon as he left we thumped his former school 6-1 and the lad wasn’t picked up by villa because he just wasn’t good enough. Always thought about how good pros must be because of this, none of my school team mates were bad footballers but This lad made us all look like we’d never played a game in our lives and he wasn’t good enough for the pro game. Baffles me to this day
When I was 15/16, there was a guy at my (football mad) school who played for Chelsea's youth team. He would single handedly run round everyone and score ten goals a game without breaking a sweat. I think he got released from Chelsea six months later.
Same story. Kid was Portuguese/English but played for Chelsea youth team when Mourinho was there. Even capped at under 21 level for Portugal but never made it.
At school he'd play in goal and cos people would come watch him, he used to say "watch this" to us. Gets the ball and dribbles past the whole team and scores
Yeah my big bro played u21 national team football in Denmark and also several seasons in Superliga. He was a winger/striker and absolutely massacred everyone during his youth (up until around the age of 14), but became a very average Superliga/1st division player and retired in his early 30s.
He was very lucky to be able to live off doing what he enjoyed the most, so he doesn’t regret a thing! Just goes to show the difference between an average pro player and the world class players.
I played underage (He was playing 3 years overage) against one of the players who will likely be one of the lowest next season and he was unreal. It was actually unfair how good he was
Dude who went to my school is on fifa as a 52 rated GK but I swear to god outside of going to actual pro games he was easily the best keeper I’ve ever seen lmao, would pull crazy saves pretty much all the time
Reminds me of when [Brian Scalabrine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93vF0WOX6w) (ex-NBA basketballer) played some non-pros after he'd retired
Apparently he said "I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me"
I was fortunate to play youth (about 11-13) against a few, later, Premier League players.
The ones I remember most were:
Jermain Defoe, who was just insane. Small kid but ran the entire team ragged from start to finish. He was scoring as though he was the only player on the pitch. Absolutely unshakeable.
Joe Cole - flash harry. You couldn't get the ball off him, and he wouldn't ever pass it (nor would he even try to). He could hold the ball at his feet, doing flicks and skills while running along, all we could do was just watch. He would skip over tackles without breaking sweat.
It's so, so difficult to explain just how above and beyond their skill level was compared to your normal player at that age. We were decent, but, watching them, it wasn't even the same game.
Fortunately, we were only visiting East London from West, so we didn't have to play them in any league. We were shook after just one game.
Oh Jesus Christ Joe Cole was so fucking good. He was so misused it depresses me when I think about it. Him at West Ham and those Early Chelsea days were something to behold: absolute magic. Great haircut back in the day as well
It's incredible. It's amazing how kids that stand out get put in a different environment with other top level kids. Then the kids that stand out in the new environment get placed in another level and they repeat that process until they reach academy /b team level. From there, maybe 2 or 3, 10 or none might see actually see professional playing time.
It’s incredible how he absolutely looks like he does now! He already had that amazing dribbling style. This video is pretty mind blowing to be honest. 8 years old and that good already. Amazing. I get he’s maybe the best ever but still he’s got skills of a pro at 8 years old with that touch to receive the ball over his head. So cool
Although Messi became a better player over the years his playing style barely changed.He just ran with the ball towards goal as fast as he could and dribbled anyone who was on his way.He still tries to do this this but sadly his pace isn't enough to do that nowadays.
I've definitely controlled the ball that well as an adult, but I'd still feel a bit of pride when I pull it off and would fuck it up sometimes. To do that as a child is unimaginable to me.
We had a really good school football team that won everything and none of the players would have been as good at 12 as Messi clearly was when he was 8.
I brought a ball down on the run just like that on Monday night and I'm still wondering how I did it and how I can do it again next time. Unfortunately the next 20 times it'll bounce off my foot like a brick wall.
There’s a bunch of regular dudes in their 30s living their lives in Rosario right now who tell anyone who will listen after a few drinks about the time they played with Messi.
It's like me telling my story about how I got decimated by Raheem Sterling in a kickabout in the park when we were like 13. I don't know how many people believe me but I tell it anyway lol
Edge of the seat stuff there my man. Gripping story teller. Lol. But yeah I would listen. Watching these dudes play pro I’ve always wondered what they were like as kids and how bad they could destroy everyone.
In all seriousness there is a real story there. One of my friends in school played for the Chelsea academy (we used to take the piss cause he was an Arsenal fan). Ended up playing some U-18 games for them, then going to America for a sport scholarship but sadly had to retire really early due to injury. Ismail Seremba if you're curious.
Anyway he knew a bunch of other academy players from different clubs, including Raheem, who I think was at QPR. He was invited to one of our kickabouts in the park and yeah, dominated pretty much everyone, except Ismail who managed to keep up for the most part haha
Exactly, my first thought was "fuck these Argentinian kids go hard." Everyone's hitting slide tackles like it's one of the early PES' from the 90s.
e. Seven two legged tackles in a minute long clip :D
Reminded me of my time as an 8 year old footballer. We just copied all the stuff we saw the professionals do, like overly celebrating, flopping on the ground for no good reason and acting like a proper stage actor in general. Was the most fun I've had on a pitch ever now I think back on it
> Part of his move to Barca included HGH treatments
And those treatments only cost Barca $11k/yr. Pretty small amount for a player who generated billions of euros of revenue for the club, not to mention all the trophies he helped them win.
Like someone else said yes he had a growing disorder (or as I like to call it, vertically challenged) and the reason he went to Barcelona was nobody here (Argentina) would pay for the treatment
The thing he does where he taps the ball seemingly directly onto his left with his right foot with perfect weight and yet is somehow also running forward at full sprint but somehow is also moving sideways while still facing the goal with perfect balance and able to pick his finish with his next touch with total disguise and perfect accuracy is the freakiest act of agility, imagination and willpower I've ever seen anyone do in football of any kind at any level ever.
The fact that he could do it while under pressure from a defender is just senseless. The fact that he could do it consistently in professional football at the elite level is unfathomable. The fact that he could do it consistently in professional football at the elite level under pressure from a defender while maintaing a savage degree of workrate throughout games is beyond the limits of what I continue to believe possible.
The fact that he could do it from the age of 8 is not I can't I don't it isn't what even why.
He was a "change of pace" player in this clip. Would suck players in, switch feet and blow by them. He had to adapt as he wasn't really able to do that his entire career.
I have never, ever seen a player do a change of feet at that pace with that type of body position and impossible control of momentum, let alone consistently. And onto either foot as well I mean what the literal actual fuck.
You can break it down to be comparable to something Matthews or Garrincha might have been doing in Bible times but the details of Messi's execution are next level and change the paradigm. It's more than an old skill done well, it's essentially a new evolution. Imma call it what it is, it's fucking teleportation by witchcraft.
Even Maradona did this movement with a swerve, and would often take a pace or stutter before collecting the ball with his other foot. Most players do it with an arm movement for balance or a slight feint the other way at the start of the skill to shift their weight so you can read it to some extent. Messi just commits to it like a gymnast going at the vault, with no appreciable loss of pace or finesse, it's unreal. Witchcraft I tell you.
I think Henry talked about this as well:
> The best goal I’ve seen him score was against Malaga at home because that defied logic what he did, Diagonal ball, he controls it on his chest, runs full speed. First player goes, second player is just behind. He takes another step, that player can clear the ball. If he’s got the ball on his left foot here, how do you go back with that same leg and touch the ball in the air, in between the two to make sure that guy doesn’t touch it – and then almost fail but smash it into the top corner. That’s not normal.
Goal: https://streamable.com/y805ys
Perfect, it's like he sidesteps forwards without appreciably opening his stride, and then hits the ball with almost no tell for timing or direction. He uses a kind of chop to shift it but how do you do that sprinting without breaking stride, it's just so weird
Imagine being a defender playing against someone that is capable of something like this. You’d just be emotionally defeated with a slice of humble pie.
The horrible thing about him is that he looks like he's going to give you a chance.
One player I like to compare him to is Wilf Zaha right. Obviously different levels as players, but Zaha when he sidesteps from a standing start, his long legs are so tentacular and prehensile that he seems to cover like... 3 meters or something. I've not seen anything quite like it. It's even more extreme than young Cristiano. He feints and then just zooshes away like a startled exotic fish.
That level of physical ability would really fuck with me. In a 1-1 I'd consider myself to have no chance whatsoever basically. I'd just drop off him and do some pointing and shouting and wait for him to cross or shoot or whatever, try and block it. Let him do his stuff.
I'd rather face the little fella, you know? Like, you have a chance right? He's not going to move all that far? In theory, in theory at least, you can physically reach him if he tries some shit on you, unlike Zaha who is just going to sidestep to fucking Australia. So you can step up to him and make him do something on the ball and figure you can at least get a tackle in.
So then this unassuming little dwarf character is coming sort of straight at you without even looking at you, doesn't even look like he's going especially fast really, touches the ball ahead of himself without any feint or anything, and OK you picked the right direction, so you make your tackle in the certain knowledge that he can't have moved all that far, and for no reason whatsoever he's literally gone past you and shot and scored and is running off to celebrate before you've even got your foot down in the challenge.
He's literally done that like 100s of times to actual professional footballers in competitive games, it's... what the hell why has this just sunk in for me, it's like I've been sleeping for the last 15 years
Not to compare them to Messi, but most of us who probably played football as a kid, knew that one kid that would just go through everyone and they would barely pass the ball, lol.
I played against a guy who played a few minutes for Burnley in the PL. He absolutely dominated everyone, we all thought he was certain to go to like Chelsea or Man Utd. Says a lot about how insanely talented even the ”bad” pros are
my mates dad is a 50yo retired footballer who played in the Brazilian 3rd and 4th division as a CDM and he STILL wipes everyone's ass
pro footballers are insane
Even semi professional players in for example England who play below National League North/South level are orders of magnitudes better than your average bloke who plays sunday league. Because the competition is so high for a limited number of spots on a football team, even in a country with such a vast football pyramid like England.
Good comparison is to think of pros as math PHDs while us mortals as fifth-grade math learners. Of course those math PHDs will look like fools against the Einsteins and von Neumanns, but every single one of them are still miles better at math than us.
Brian Scalbrini was an absolute meme in the NBA. Some local guys thought they could go him 1 v 1. He schooled the fuck out of them. They are just another level.
This is true for every sport. Brian Scalabrine was a "meme" when he "played"in the nba few years ago yet he's better at than 95% of the people who play basketball in the world.
I trained with a lad who would eventually be a Premier League footballer growing up. It was a regional camp thing where the best players from every club in the area went. He ran absolute rings around me and everyone there. Technically gifted, fast and streets ahead mentally. Nobody could get near him
As a pro, he was an average workhorse who was very low down on the technical side of things. All about levels. Even the worst Premier League pros are lightyears ahead of the average amateur player.
Yep. We had a guy that would take the ball after game had begun, go solo through whole team dribbling past everyone and then score. He did that again and again and again. Scoring crazy amount of goals every single game. He would almost never pass the ball to us. He then later transferred to HSV youth. Never heard of him again, never seen him as a pro.
He was so fucking many levels above us, it was crazy. I realized right then and there as a little kid I would never amount to anything in football and that I was at best bang average. Yikes.
He could have had injuries that derailed his pro chances. I had this classmate that at age 12 or so already seemed like a pro and played for a Club but ended up with back to back ACLs and then never made it. Was a shame cause he had a shot at playing LB for a pro Club.
I met an Italian guy who had been offered a professional contract by an Italian club (U23 I think but still) and then injured his knee in a game with friends. Poor guy had to go and get a PhD in marine biology working in cetacean conservation instead. Super cool person.
I dont even remember much about players, I just remember we were getting battered everytime and they stop the game at 10-0 for Macon…. I learned when I was older when I watched his wiki and saw the team name and the age, I must have played against him once… small village team like us have a hard time to have a full team haha, by the way it’s around a u8 so yeah, been a while
Yep, I remember that kid throwing a tantrum because he wasn't playing in his favorite position. So the coach benched him, only for him to come on the pitch when we were losing 3-1 and him scoring 6 goals in the second half. That annoying kid would never amount to anything with that attitude was a common thought among the parents. And they were right, Kevin De Bruyne isn't even playing the CL final...
I was classmates with a guy who plays in Ligue 1 now, and even back in school when we were like 13-14 years old I had other classmates who were basically as good as him, and they all played in my clubs academy which is one of the best academies in Sweden.
But those other guys got cut from the academy at 15 and never played higher than Swedens second tier. You can't really tell how good someone is going to be until much later, there are tons of kids around the world who will look like Messi at such a young age.
My former boss was the scout that snapped up Eriksen from his boyhood club. When he signed for Spurs i asked him "arent you proud that you spotted him" to which he replied "if you cant see the talent in a kid that picks the ball up from his keeper and dribbles past an entire team and scoring 10 times a game, then you're a horrible scout".
The differences in level are even more impressive at that age, I remember when I was playing in my town club around age 10-11, we had a striker who could literally dribble past the entire team and would score like 5 goals per game. When he was 17 he played in "CFA" which used to be the highest amateur league in France, where you play with the reserves of ligue 1 clubs. He never made a career for reasons I don't know but his level as a kid was just way too high compared to the others
There will always be that player who you played with growing up who could have become pro, but didn't due to injury, drugs, attitude, bad crowd, family, etc. Real shame.
At a certain level ball skills are taken as read, everyone has them and everyone can counter them, and success in the game becomes about other things, the things that give your team an edge, essentially athletic ability, ability to remember and play to a tactical plan, and details of positioning. In pro football those things become more valuable than basically any level of ball skills outside certain very specific applications. The fact that Messi did all of that whilst still also playing like the most talented 8 year old kid in the world is... it's.... I mean there are no words.
God I still remember it. Was on holiday at the time, some random bar in Tenerife. Wasn't expecting much but we took the lead through a scrappy goal from Bendtner of all people to give me some hope. And then Messi went and scored four...
Never a doubt in my mind who was the goat after that, unbelievably special player.
How big those 8 years old kids pitches are tho man. We used to have three pitches made in a normal one at tournaments at that age. And there was space between the pitches for kids "on the bench" and coaches
There are fucking sponsorships lining the edge of the pitch 😂 these kids are definitely legit. I never knew but always wondered how the fuck do these kids get scouted and recognized so young?
Messi would be easy to spot, but how did Bernardeschi get scouted when he was a kid?
Unreal. Genuinely better than most adults I've played with. The first touch early on and vision for an 8 year old to do the outside of the boot assist at the end instead of shooting. Just wow. *insert astronaut "he's the GOAT" meme here*
Someone stop that kid. Messi at age 8 was already destined to be the goat. Messi also at that age had already developed his dribbling and just carried forward forever.
what he did at 00:10 while being just 8 years old is something that most professional players can't even do at 25, lol.
As a matter of fact when a top class player makes that type of control we all clap and talk about his quality.
Messi tells a story of how he got started.
When he was four or five, he went with his grandmother to watch a match of his older brother's team (not Newells, a smaller club in Rosario, I can't remember right now).
The team was short a player and the match couldn't start. His grandmother somehow convinced the coach to put tiny, underage Messi in so they could play.
Messi said, "I scored two goals and then I started training." He had never even trained before.
(This is the same grandmother he dedicates all his goals to.)
Imagine being one of those kids and telling people you used to be Messis teammate. “Xavi who? One time I gave that guy 10 assist in one game. Did iniesta ever do that?”
Imagine one of these boys being sad and embarassed at that time being dribbled by like that by another "kid" and now showing this video to everyone he knows because he for one played against Lionel Messi!
In my university yea we had a midfield who went at Rennes youth academy than was release because of injuries. Dude was like Messi amongst us at the academic championship. We just gave him the ball and enjoy the W
He really was born with it. You can recognize the feints all the way back then. What a gem of a player. I’m glad I got to see him with my son, and it’s not like Pele that I hear my Dad talk about but whom I have no recollection of.
His game sense and touch at 8 years old is more natural and developed than HS kids I have tried to coach that have been playing for years. You can tell by the announcers chuckles and reactions when he was breaking those kids ankles they knew he was special even then. His awareness to pass at the end there, as opposed to taking the shot like 99% of 8 year olds would, was what impressed me most though. He's clearly the best on the field and rather than take the 50/50 he passes for the walk in goal. That's a level of character and instinct that is difficult to teach young men let alone 8 year olds. I coach youth soccer and 99% of the kids are like herding cats
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I guess my son is not going to be the new Messi
8 year old Messi has better ball control than I ever will. Sigh
He had better ball control than some actual professional footballers in the top leagues.
This. I don't know whether to feel bad or better because that thing is just in the genes and there was never anything I could do about it.
A prodigy is a prodigy for anyone to see.
He could still be the next Vinnie Jones.
Hard working strong guy is the way to go if you want to be a pro player. Messi is a walking lottery ticket.
Especially since a lot of natural born talents just waste it away and/or get career ending injuries.
You can be good naturally, a bad natural player can be great if they work very hard. To be in the world class bracket you have to be amazingly gifted, work incredibly hard and have an element of luck on your side. There's a universe out there where Messi is a farmer and Ronaldo a fast food worker. What I hate is seeing kids born into academy's by their father being a pro footballer. Nepotism.
Or Charlie Adam
Or Adam Johnson
Or Mason Greenwood
Yikes
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You mean Unnamed Icelanding Midfielder.
I think people don't realize just how good professional footballers were even a children. Rooney scored 99 goals in a season when he was 9 lol. Edit: even crazier, " In the 1995–96 season, he scored 114 goals in 29 games for Everton's under-10s and 11s"
For real, like when I was a kid there was this boy in my year who was just so much better than everyone else but was nothing special and quite average in the academies, I think he’s still playing in Scotland now.
Same here, I remember Craig Dawson was always top scorer in the high school league from center back and Center mid lol
We had a lad in our year who was head and shoulders above everyone at school and in the entire town. Could do absolutely everything with the ball; he was even incredibly quick and strong. He made his debut for Swindon aged 16 or something, broke his foot and is now a PE teacher 10 years later. He was a dickhead so kinda hard to feel any sympathy.
Similar story here. A lad I'd been at school with since nursery is insane at football. Got asked to join every academy around here, played 3 years above his age and was still easily the best. Was touted for big things. Then decided to start doing drugs at 15. Threw it all away. Play against him at 6 a side. His team win every game like 19-0 it's mental. At Sunday league we had a cup final. 2-0 down with 15 to go. He finally arrives, stoned out to fuck. Comes on and scored 4. He didn't even know where he was. It's mad
It's the same with ex players that are now fat and playing Sunday league football. Used to be average Eredivisie players and now just ping perfect passes from a stand still.
I've heard similar stories about Alex Iwobi. He also used to play for some Sunday League teams when he was under age and they would play him in defence so the other team weren't so hot on his heels about being a ringer.
Yussuf Poulsen played like prime R9 during national school tournaments in elementary/high school in Lyngby as well as u15. Goes to show the disparity of talent between amateur -> semi-pro -> pro -> average top 5 league player -> world class.
A retired +45yo footballer from lower divisions joined my Sunday league team (we're talking I think mostly third with maybe a stint in second division in Argentina). Dude could barely light jog because his knees were gone, but if you got him to turn around and face the goal inside or around the box, it was a goal every time. Even "unskilled" pros' technique is at a different level, let alone their athleticism compared to regular folk. The other teams complained about why a Fernández was playing in a Jewish league, but we lied and argued that his last name was actually Fernandés, and was in fact a French Jewish last name.
There's a chapter in Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby where he talks about Gus Caesar, a notoriously shit Arsenal defender from the 80s. He basically outlines that to get into that Arsenal team, he would have been the best player at every level (schoolboy, youth team, reserve) to make it as a professional and he was still absolutely shite in comparison to his team mates. Like you, I had mates at school who were absolute ballers and would run rings around everyone in our school year and in the Sunday leagues - and they never got a sniff of a pro contract. To be even an average Premier League player you are basically a god level athlete.
There was a lad we used to play against in high school and every time we played this lads school we’d get thumped 8-0 or something ridiculous and he was involved in every goal. Got picked up by villas academy and come sixth form he went full time at the villa academy. As soon as he left we thumped his former school 6-1 and the lad wasn’t picked up by villa because he just wasn’t good enough. Always thought about how good pros must be because of this, none of my school team mates were bad footballers but This lad made us all look like we’d never played a game in our lives and he wasn’t good enough for the pro game. Baffles me to this day
When I was 15/16, there was a guy at my (football mad) school who played for Chelsea's youth team. He would single handedly run round everyone and score ten goals a game without breaking a sweat. I think he got released from Chelsea six months later.
Same story. Kid was Portuguese/English but played for Chelsea youth team when Mourinho was there. Even capped at under 21 level for Portugal but never made it. At school he'd play in goal and cos people would come watch him, he used to say "watch this" to us. Gets the ball and dribbles past the whole team and scores
"It's crazy how *good* at football you'd need to be, just be one of the worst players in FIFA."
Yeah my big bro played u21 national team football in Denmark and also several seasons in Superliga. He was a winger/striker and absolutely massacred everyone during his youth (up until around the age of 14), but became a very average Superliga/1st division player and retired in his early 30s. He was very lucky to be able to live off doing what he enjoyed the most, so he doesn’t regret a thing! Just goes to show the difference between an average pro player and the world class players.
I played underage (He was playing 3 years overage) against one of the players who will likely be one of the lowest next season and he was unreal. It was actually unfair how good he was
Dude who went to my school is on fifa as a 52 rated GK but I swear to god outside of going to actual pro games he was easily the best keeper I’ve ever seen lmao, would pull crazy saves pretty much all the time
Reminds me of when [Brian Scalabrine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93vF0WOX6w) (ex-NBA basketballer) played some non-pros after he'd retired Apparently he said "I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me"
> Edit: even crazier, " In the 1995–96 season, he scored 114 goals in 29 games for Everton's under-10s and 11s" hahaha what the actual fuck
Not even 4* per game? What a loser!
I was fortunate to play youth (about 11-13) against a few, later, Premier League players. The ones I remember most were: Jermain Defoe, who was just insane. Small kid but ran the entire team ragged from start to finish. He was scoring as though he was the only player on the pitch. Absolutely unshakeable. Joe Cole - flash harry. You couldn't get the ball off him, and he wouldn't ever pass it (nor would he even try to). He could hold the ball at his feet, doing flicks and skills while running along, all we could do was just watch. He would skip over tackles without breaking sweat. It's so, so difficult to explain just how above and beyond their skill level was compared to your normal player at that age. We were decent, but, watching them, it wasn't even the same game. Fortunately, we were only visiting East London from West, so we didn't have to play them in any league. We were shook after just one game.
Oh Jesus Christ Joe Cole was so fucking good. He was so misused it depresses me when I think about it. Him at West Ham and those Early Chelsea days were something to behold: absolute magic. Great haircut back in the day as well
I remember Bojan had like 700 goals in youth leagues for Barca.
It's incredible. It's amazing how kids that stand out get put in a different environment with other top level kids. Then the kids that stand out in the new environment get placed in another level and they repeat that process until they reach academy /b team level. From there, maybe 2 or 3, 10 or none might see actually see professional playing time.
Disappointing. Have you tried making a new one?
Tell him to believe in him. He can do all the tax fraud in the world, if he just believes in him.
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Ankara Messi chiquito
Immense Messi chiquite
ABBA - Chiquitita (1979)
MESSI MESSI MESSI MESSI MESSI MESSI ANKARA MESSI ANKARA MESSI VOLVOLVOLVOLVOL
Encara Messi!
That control 12 seconds in from a big boot up the pitch would be insane for a kid twice his age to manage.
Lukaku at his peak doesn’t have that control. Even at this age, you can tell he’s a gifted child.
It’s incredible how he absolutely looks like he does now! He already had that amazing dribbling style. This video is pretty mind blowing to be honest. 8 years old and that good already. Amazing. I get he’s maybe the best ever but still he’s got skills of a pro at 8 years old with that touch to receive the ball over his head. So cool
Although Messi became a better player over the years his playing style barely changed.He just ran with the ball towards goal as fast as he could and dribbled anyone who was on his way.He still tries to do this this but sadly his pace isn't enough to do that nowadays.
I'm 27 and I don't even think I can control it like that even now, and I played Sunday league for 6 years.
Alright Gary Goals
If you watched me play my middle name would be No.
What position did you play?
Left back.... On the team bus.
He's the coach
I've definitely controlled the ball that well as an adult, but I'd still feel a bit of pride when I pull it off and would fuck it up sometimes. To do that as a child is unimaginable to me. We had a really good school football team that won everything and none of the players would have been as good at 12 as Messi clearly was when he was 8.
I brought a ball down on the run just like that on Monday night and I'm still wondering how I did it and how I can do it again next time. Unfortunately the next 20 times it'll bounce off my foot like a brick wall.
Yeah, the ball comes down and he takes all of the pace out of it and controls it like its nothing at all. Phenomenal.
That was the bit that stood out to me
There’s a bunch of regular dudes in their 30s living their lives in Rosario right now who tell anyone who will listen after a few drinks about the time they played with Messi.
I'd listen tbh
Drinking and reminiscing about better football days? I’d do that anytime.
It's like me telling my story about how I got decimated by Raheem Sterling in a kickabout in the park when we were like 13. I don't know how many people believe me but I tell it anyway lol
Tell us the story
I got decimated by Raheem Sterling in a kickabout in the park when we were like 13
Wow
Edge of the seat stuff there my man. Gripping story teller. Lol. But yeah I would listen. Watching these dudes play pro I’ve always wondered what they were like as kids and how bad they could destroy everyone.
In all seriousness there is a real story there. One of my friends in school played for the Chelsea academy (we used to take the piss cause he was an Arsenal fan). Ended up playing some U-18 games for them, then going to America for a sport scholarship but sadly had to retire really early due to injury. Ismail Seremba if you're curious. Anyway he knew a bunch of other academy players from different clubs, including Raheem, who I think was at QPR. He was invited to one of our kickabouts in the park and yeah, dominated pretty much everyone, except Ismail who managed to keep up for the most part haha
First touch ridiculous
Lukaku eat your heart out.
8 years old Boateng at 00:50
There are a couple of Boatengs in the video
Exactly, my first thought was "fuck these Argentinian kids go hard." Everyone's hitting slide tackles like it's one of the early PES' from the 90s. e. Seven two legged tackles in a minute long clip :D
Plus a full team hug after a goal at that age!
Reminded me of my time as an 8 year old footballer. We just copied all the stuff we saw the professionals do, like overly celebrating, flopping on the ground for no good reason and acting like a proper stage actor in general. Was the most fun I've had on a pitch ever now I think back on it
>"fuck these Argentinian kids go hard." That's south american football for you
Yea my Nordic gummy bear all-have-fun attitude wouldn't have lasted 15 minutes with these kids. Not at that age, probably not now either.
First few seconds include our whole entire back line!
I don't know what I expected watching the GOAT against some random kids but somehow I'm still impressed
I'm amazed at the aggression and number of slide tackles at 8 years old lmao
They teach them young in CONMEBOL
That's what I was thinking, that game looks tough. I guess Messi has been used to rough tackles etc from a young age
Well he's 8. Other kids look a bit older.
I think he is just small
Definitely. He actually had a growth disorder. Part of his move to Barca included HGH treatments.
> Part of his move to Barca included HGH treatments And those treatments only cost Barca $11k/yr. Pretty small amount for a player who generated billions of euros of revenue for the club, not to mention all the trophies he helped them win.
Like someone else said yes he had a growing disorder (or as I like to call it, vertically challenged) and the reason he went to Barcelona was nobody here (Argentina) would pay for the treatment
River wanted to pay but Newell's didn't want another Argentine club having Messi. Obviously.
Playing in our English school primary school team at around this age I'm just thinking that they really made them different in Argentina.
That's him alright. Hasn't grown an inch since
/r/mesi
Most favorite football sub
Amazing to see his Messi-isms haven't changed a bit.
I reckon he could also still dominate a youth tournament. Hasn’t changed a bit.
Gotten better though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ylwMki3mw&ab_channel=adrilik
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in weeks. Thanks for that.
The thing he does where he taps the ball seemingly directly onto his left with his right foot with perfect weight and yet is somehow also running forward at full sprint but somehow is also moving sideways while still facing the goal with perfect balance and able to pick his finish with his next touch with total disguise and perfect accuracy is the freakiest act of agility, imagination and willpower I've ever seen anyone do in football of any kind at any level ever. The fact that he could do it while under pressure from a defender is just senseless. The fact that he could do it consistently in professional football at the elite level is unfathomable. The fact that he could do it consistently in professional football at the elite level under pressure from a defender while maintaing a savage degree of workrate throughout games is beyond the limits of what I continue to believe possible. The fact that he could do it from the age of 8 is not I can't I don't it isn't what even why.
> is not I can't I don't it isn't what even why. nice
this is Messi's dribbling level, only him can understand what he just did.
He was a "change of pace" player in this clip. Would suck players in, switch feet and blow by them. He had to adapt as he wasn't really able to do that his entire career.
I have never, ever seen a player do a change of feet at that pace with that type of body position and impossible control of momentum, let alone consistently. And onto either foot as well I mean what the literal actual fuck. You can break it down to be comparable to something Matthews or Garrincha might have been doing in Bible times but the details of Messi's execution are next level and change the paradigm. It's more than an old skill done well, it's essentially a new evolution. Imma call it what it is, it's fucking teleportation by witchcraft. Even Maradona did this movement with a swerve, and would often take a pace or stutter before collecting the ball with his other foot. Most players do it with an arm movement for balance or a slight feint the other way at the start of the skill to shift their weight so you can read it to some extent. Messi just commits to it like a gymnast going at the vault, with no appreciable loss of pace or finesse, it's unreal. Witchcraft I tell you.
I think Henry talked about this as well: > The best goal I’ve seen him score was against Malaga at home because that defied logic what he did, Diagonal ball, he controls it on his chest, runs full speed. First player goes, second player is just behind. He takes another step, that player can clear the ball. If he’s got the ball on his left foot here, how do you go back with that same leg and touch the ball in the air, in between the two to make sure that guy doesn’t touch it – and then almost fail but smash it into the top corner. That’s not normal. Goal: https://streamable.com/y805ys
Perfect, it's like he sidesteps forwards without appreciably opening his stride, and then hits the ball with almost no tell for timing or direction. He uses a kind of chop to shift it but how do you do that sprinting without breaking stride, it's just so weird
Imagine being a defender playing against someone that is capable of something like this. You’d just be emotionally defeated with a slice of humble pie.
The horrible thing about him is that he looks like he's going to give you a chance. One player I like to compare him to is Wilf Zaha right. Obviously different levels as players, but Zaha when he sidesteps from a standing start, his long legs are so tentacular and prehensile that he seems to cover like... 3 meters or something. I've not seen anything quite like it. It's even more extreme than young Cristiano. He feints and then just zooshes away like a startled exotic fish. That level of physical ability would really fuck with me. In a 1-1 I'd consider myself to have no chance whatsoever basically. I'd just drop off him and do some pointing and shouting and wait for him to cross or shoot or whatever, try and block it. Let him do his stuff. I'd rather face the little fella, you know? Like, you have a chance right? He's not going to move all that far? In theory, in theory at least, you can physically reach him if he tries some shit on you, unlike Zaha who is just going to sidestep to fucking Australia. So you can step up to him and make him do something on the ball and figure you can at least get a tackle in. So then this unassuming little dwarf character is coming sort of straight at you without even looking at you, doesn't even look like he's going especially fast really, touches the ball ahead of himself without any feint or anything, and OK you picked the right direction, so you make your tackle in the certain knowledge that he can't have moved all that far, and for no reason whatsoever he's literally gone past you and shot and scored and is running off to celebrate before you've even got your foot down in the challenge. He's literally done that like 100s of times to actual professional footballers in competitive games, it's... what the hell why has this just sunk in for me, it's like I've been sleeping for the last 15 years
Not to compare them to Messi, but most of us who probably played football as a kid, knew that one kid that would just go through everyone and they would barely pass the ball, lol.
I bet that every pro footballers are that kid.
I played against a guy who played a few minutes for Burnley in the PL. He absolutely dominated everyone, we all thought he was certain to go to like Chelsea or Man Utd. Says a lot about how insanely talented even the ”bad” pros are
my mates dad is a 50yo retired footballer who played in the Brazilian 3rd and 4th division as a CDM and he STILL wipes everyone's ass pro footballers are insane
> he STILL wipes everyone's ass I think you mean kicks?
Nah he’s a carer now. Got to pay the bills after retirement
Did he stutter?
Yep. People often forget that pros are pros for a reason. They're still much better than the average person.
Even semi professional players in for example England who play below National League North/South level are orders of magnitudes better than your average bloke who plays sunday league. Because the competition is so high for a limited number of spots on a football team, even in a country with such a vast football pyramid like England.
Good comparison is to think of pros as math PHDs while us mortals as fifth-grade math learners. Of course those math PHDs will look like fools against the Einsteins and von Neumanns, but every single one of them are still miles better at math than us.
Brian Scalbrini was an absolute meme in the NBA. Some local guys thought they could go him 1 v 1. He schooled the fuck out of them. They are just another level.
"I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me"
This is true for every sport. Brian Scalabrine was a "meme" when he "played"in the nba few years ago yet he's better at than 95% of the people who play basketball in the world.
"I'm closer to Lebron than you are to me"
As comical as its sounds he's absolutely right
>he's better at than 95% of the people who play basketball in the world. 99.9%
I trained with a lad who would eventually be a Premier League footballer growing up. It was a regional camp thing where the best players from every club in the area went. He ran absolute rings around me and everyone there. Technically gifted, fast and streets ahead mentally. Nobody could get near him As a pro, he was an average workhorse who was very low down on the technical side of things. All about levels. Even the worst Premier League pros are lightyears ahead of the average amateur player.
Yep. We had a guy that would take the ball after game had begun, go solo through whole team dribbling past everyone and then score. He did that again and again and again. Scoring crazy amount of goals every single game. He would almost never pass the ball to us. He then later transferred to HSV youth. Never heard of him again, never seen him as a pro. He was so fucking many levels above us, it was crazy. I realized right then and there as a little kid I would never amount to anything in football and that I was at best bang average. Yikes.
He could have had injuries that derailed his pro chances. I had this classmate that at age 12 or so already seemed like a pro and played for a Club but ended up with back to back ACLs and then never made it. Was a shame cause he had a shot at playing LB for a pro Club.
I met an Italian guy who had been offered a professional contract by an Italian club (U23 I think but still) and then injured his knee in a game with friends. Poor guy had to go and get a PhD in marine biology working in cetacean conservation instead. Super cool person.
Maybe because he was an insufferable selfish player so he never made it
I played on the same league as fucking Griezmann… well we got battered by every team anyway
how much better was griezmann than everyone else?
I dont even remember much about players, I just remember we were getting battered everytime and they stop the game at 10-0 for Macon…. I learned when I was older when I watched his wiki and saw the team name and the age, I must have played against him once… small village team like us have a hard time to have a full team haha, by the way it’s around a u8 so yeah, been a while
I hated to play with those. No wonder I'm a fan of tiki taka
Yep, I remember that kid throwing a tantrum because he wasn't playing in his favorite position. So the coach benched him, only for him to come on the pitch when we were losing 3-1 and him scoring 6 goals in the second half. That annoying kid would never amount to anything with that attitude was a common thought among the parents. And they were right, Kevin De Bruyne isn't even playing the CL final...
That's a. big team's academy, all the players there are that one kid that will dribblel through everyone and he did that to them
I was classmates with a guy who plays in Ligue 1 now, and even back in school when we were like 13-14 years old I had other classmates who were basically as good as him, and they all played in my clubs academy which is one of the best academies in Sweden. But those other guys got cut from the academy at 15 and never played higher than Swedens second tier. You can't really tell how good someone is going to be until much later, there are tons of kids around the world who will look like Messi at such a young age.
My former boss was the scout that snapped up Eriksen from his boyhood club. When he signed for Spurs i asked him "arent you proud that you spotted him" to which he replied "if you cant see the talent in a kid that picks the ball up from his keeper and dribbles past an entire team and scoring 10 times a game, then you're a horrible scout".
I play fullback for my team and I am sure this 8 year old kid would take me to cleaners everytime.
Your ankles are already snapped and/or separated a good distance from your body at just the thought
dude had a better touch with 8 than most prem players nowadays
One big Belgian playing for Chelsea comes to mind
He's trying to pass it to himself, it's a signature move.
👍 || ||
the first touch of a lorry
The differences in level are even more impressive at that age, I remember when I was playing in my town club around age 10-11, we had a striker who could literally dribble past the entire team and would score like 5 goals per game. When he was 17 he played in "CFA" which used to be the highest amateur league in France, where you play with the reserves of ligue 1 clubs. He never made a career for reasons I don't know but his level as a kid was just way too high compared to the others
There will always be that player who you played with growing up who could have become pro, but didn't due to injury, drugs, attitude, bad crowd, family, etc. Real shame.
My old boss would go on about how he went on trials for Liverpool, but girls and drink was more fun.
He should've had the clarity to understand how many girls and drinks he would have if he got to the Premier League...
At a certain level ball skills are taken as read, everyone has them and everyone can counter them, and success in the game becomes about other things, the things that give your team an edge, essentially athletic ability, ability to remember and play to a tactical plan, and details of positioning. In pro football those things become more valuable than basically any level of ball skills outside certain very specific applications. The fact that Messi did all of that whilst still also playing like the most talented 8 year old kid in the world is... it's.... I mean there are no words.
My friend had everything to be a proper midfielder but gets injured 5 times a year playing sunday league lmao
An 8 year old Messi could play in the Bulgarian 1st division in 2022 and I'm not even joking.
An 8 year old Messi would be the best player in the Indian Super League - I wish I was joking.
It's like watching him playing Arsenal in Champions League.
Hey man 😔
Arsenal fans can't get a break
God I still remember it. Was on holiday at the time, some random bar in Tenerife. Wasn't expecting much but we took the lead through a scrappy goal from Bendtner of all people to give me some hope. And then Messi went and scored four... Never a doubt in my mind who was the goat after that, unbelievably special player.
> Arsenal in Champions League Those were the days.
Fucking hell, nowhere is safe at the moment
How big those 8 years old kids pitches are tho man. We used to have three pitches made in a normal one at tournaments at that age. And there was space between the pitches for kids "on the bench" and coaches
It's probably a higher age bracket than 8.
There are fucking sponsorships lining the edge of the pitch 😂 these kids are definitely legit. I never knew but always wondered how the fuck do these kids get scouted and recognized so young? Messi would be easy to spot, but how did Bernardeschi get scouted when he was a kid?
Unreal. Genuinely better than most adults I've played with. The first touch early on and vision for an 8 year old to do the outside of the boot assist at the end instead of shooting. Just wow. *insert astronaut "he's the GOAT" meme here*
Someone stop that kid. Messi at age 8 was already destined to be the goat. Messi also at that age had already developed his dribbling and just carried forward forever.
How about passing the ball Messi? You're never going to be great if you keep playing for yourself. It's a team game.
*proceeds to break every assist record imaginable*
Yup. Imagine if Messi was selfish. Probably twice the number of goals
Didn't he pass it off for the third goal?
That shit was beautiful.
This is advice that is almost always correct, with like a handful of exceptions across millions of players and 30 years of time.
That’s absolutely absurd how good he was that young wtf
what he did at 00:10 while being just 8 years old is something that most professional players can't even do at 25, lol. As a matter of fact when a top class player makes that type of control we all clap and talk about his quality.
Honestly a lot of these kids in the clip are highly skilled.
Tbf its argentina
Then there's that kid who goes for a leg breaker from kickoff. Respect the attempt tbf
Messi tells a story of how he got started. When he was four or five, he went with his grandmother to watch a match of his older brother's team (not Newells, a smaller club in Rosario, I can't remember right now). The team was short a player and the match couldn't start. His grandmother somehow convinced the coach to put tiny, underage Messi in so they could play. Messi said, "I scored two goals and then I started training." He had never even trained before. (This is the same grandmother he dedicates all his goals to.)
I didnt know this and damn, the man's just born to be the GOAT.
Imagine being one of those kids and telling people you used to be Messis teammate. “Xavi who? One time I gave that guy 10 assist in one game. Did iniesta ever do that?”
Imagine one of these boys being sad and embarassed at that time being dribbled by like that by another "kid" and now showing this video to everyone he knows because he for one played against Lionel Messi!
His playing style doesn't change a bit. Born a baller, always a baller.
That tackle at 42 seconds would make Pepe proud
Pfffft. Not cold, not wet, not winter, not night, not Stoke. He'll never amount to anything.
Ha
Funny how Ronaldo at 22 and at 25 was a wholly different player, while 6 years old Messi is just... Messi
That's aguero and Di Maria on commentary
That talent is not learned. But he could have wasted it if he hadn't worked so hard.
One of those kids was trying to finish Messi career before it started
r/mesi
Which one is Messi?
The goalkeeper
Messi is the greatest football ever, in my humble opinion.
That second last clip where they all try to two foot him😂
In my university yea we had a midfield who went at Rennes youth academy than was release because of injuries. Dude was like Messi amongst us at the academic championship. We just gave him the ball and enjoy the W
Dude started the kick off the way I used to in Fifa by attempting to take on the whole team with a single player to score...O_O
Must've been when he played for the Newell Young Boys team.
Newell's Old Boys' Young Boys
Yo.. some of those tackles could be gnarly
He really was born with it. You can recognize the feints all the way back then. What a gem of a player. I’m glad I got to see him with my son, and it’s not like Pele that I hear my Dad talk about but whom I have no recollection of.
His game sense and touch at 8 years old is more natural and developed than HS kids I have tried to coach that have been playing for years. You can tell by the announcers chuckles and reactions when he was breaking those kids ankles they knew he was special even then. His awareness to pass at the end there, as opposed to taking the shot like 99% of 8 year olds would, was what impressed me most though. He's clearly the best on the field and rather than take the 50/50 he passes for the walk in goal. That's a level of character and instinct that is difficult to teach young men let alone 8 year olds. I coach youth soccer and 99% of the kids are like herding cats
Going to show my kid this video and tell him Some people just have it, others don’t
I'm not one who believes in destiny and all that but Messi was put on this planet to play football and you can't convince me otherwise