EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – In the summer of 1993, a boy from the Argentine city of Rosario began to take soccer seriously. Well, as seriously as a 6-year-old could take anything.
He had joined Newell’s Old Boys, a club with 90 years of tradition. He was small for his age, still years from being diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency that would drive the family overseas for treatment and, ultimately, lift the fortunes of a Catalonian heirloom for more than a decade.
As Lionel Andres Messi took to the game, the national team was awash in triumph.