Riyad Mahrez on Lionel Messi meeting his daughter after Argentina vs Algeria:
🗣️ “After the match, I went over to Leo Messi with my daughter because meeting him had been one of her biggest dreams for years. She has watched his highlights, worn his shirts, talked about his goals, and imagined this moment so many times.”
“As a father, there are moments in life that mean more than football, more than victories, and more than anything that happens on a pitch. Watching your child experience pure happiness is something that cannot be described with words.”
“I told Leo that she had been dreaming of meeting him and taking a photo with him for such a long time, and immediately he stopped what he was doing, smiled warmly, and gave her his full attention.”
“She was so nervous that she could barely speak at first. Her hands were shaking, her eyes were full of emotion, and she looked like she couldn't believe the moment she had imagined for years was finally happening.”
“In that moment, there was no Argentina, no Algeria, no World Cup, no competition, and no rivalry. It was simply a little girl standing face-to-face with the person she had always looked up to.”
“What touched me the most was the way Leo handled the situation. He didn't rush, he didn't make it feel like an obligation, and he didn't act like a superstar. He made her feel special and comfortable.”
“He spoke to her, smiled for the photos, and treated her with so much kindness and respect. Those small gestures mean everything to children because they stay with them forever.”
“When we walked away, she couldn't stop smiling. She kept looking at the photo over and over again, almost as if she was checking whether the moment was real.”
“She kept saying, ‘Dad, I actually met Messi. I really met Messi.’ Hearing those words from my daughter was more emotional for me than people can imagine.”
“Football gives us unforgettable moments on the pitch, but for me, the most beautiful moment of the night happened after the final whistle when I watched my daughter's dream become a reality right in front of my eyes.”
At 11, Lionel Messi was just under 4 feet 2 inches tall and taking nightly injections in his leg just to grow. Yesterday, at 38, he scored a World Cup hat trick and tied the all-time record for most goals in World Cup history.
His body couldn't produce enough growth hormone, the hormone that tells your body to grow. Without treatment, doctors said he would reach only 4'7" as an adult. The injections cost around $900 a month. His family couldn't afford them.
Two of Argentina's biggest clubs, River Plate and Newell's Old Boys, saw his talent and passed on paying for the treatment. FC Barcelona didn't. Carles Rexach, their sporting director, wrote a contract on a napkin in 2000 to secure the 13-year-old. The club covered his medical bills. He came over, grew to 5'7" (the average height for an Argentine man), then went on to score 672 goals for Barcelona alone, more than any player has ever scored for a single club in football history.
Messi has won the Ballon d'Or (given annually to the world's best footballer) 8 times, more than anyone in history. He has 46 team trophies. His 474 goals in La Liga (Spain's top football division) lead the all-time list by more than 160. His 414 career assists are a world record, meaning he set up more goals than most players score across their entire careers. In 2012 alone, at 25, he scored 91 goals in 69 games, breaking a Guinness World Record from 1972 and outscoring 13 entire La Liga clubs in a single season.
Yesterday, in his record sixth World Cup, he scored three more to reach 16 total, tying Miroslav Klose's record set across 4 World Cups between 2002 and 2014. At 38, he became the oldest player to score multiple goals in a single World Cup match. He was substituted in the 80th minute to a standing ovation, then turned to his coach and cried.
The napkin Barcelona signed in 2000 has now produced over 910 career goals.