Lionel Messi: From crying behind a pillow to World Cup winner – Guillem Balague on Argentine’s journey to glory

Spanish journalist Guillem Balague has revealed that Lionel Messi used to cry during his first years in Spain due to homesickness, but believes it helped him become a football legend.

The 35-year-old grabbed a brace as a breathless match went the distance following a 3-3 draw in Qatar, with the PSG star scoring again from the spot to help deliver his country a first World Cup since the Diego Maradona-inspired team of 1986.

It capped a remarkable journey for Messi, which started when he moved from Rosario, his home town in Argentina, to Barcelona at the age of 12 so he could play for the academy team.

“Have a look at what he did as soon as they [Argentina] won the penalty shootout,” the highly-rated journalist said.

“He ran to his family and wanted to communicate and contact them somehow. They were obviously looking at each other and everybody was happy, and his mum Celia was in tears and Jorge his dad as well.

“That’s the first thing it means. The four-year-old that was playing in the street with his dad, who actually coached him.

“At 12, he had to tell his family, ‘I want to stay here, I want to stay in Barcelona’ having left everything behind and that meant the mum, the two brothers and sisters went back to Argentina.

“He had to stay behind with his dad and there were all those Sundays where there was nobody around.

“He was playing Playstation with his dad, and his dad is really terrible at it, so he just eventually ended up hiding in his room with a pillow, just hiding himself, crying because those Sundays were difficult and his family were separated.

“All that was done for a reason for him to become professional, for him to become very good, for him at some point to win the World Cup, and he’s just done it.”

Balague believes Argentina and France relied on their two star players – Messi and Kylian Mbappe – which is an unusual tactic in modern football.

“This was a World Cup of moments,” he said. “Forget the World Cup final for a second. What both Argentina and France have done is, let’s make sure that nothing happens, that we cancel out the opposition. But we won’t risk a lot much because we’ll wait for a moment from the superstar.

“That is relatively new because you hope that they provided what you need and they did so with Mbappe and Messi scoring.

“One of the iconic moments of the World Cup was when he picked up the ball on the right-hand side for the third goal against Croatia, when he runs and delivers the ball to Julian Alvarez. All of a sudden, you had him providing when you need it.

“In a World Cup final to score twice for somebody who’s 35 years old, who picks his moments of when to intervene. But this time, backed up by a team that gave fluidity to the football, that seemed down and really physically dead in extra time. What you need there is more Messi and we got more of Messi.”