If you are a big fan of sports, you may hear of a famous man around the world whose name is Lionel Messi. He has established his own reputation as one of the most professional football players up to now. Throughout his career, he has been awarded a lot of valuable prizes of various competitions thanks to his best skills as well as great efforts. Have you ever been curious about the people that Messi admires most? In this post, we will reveal some interesting information about his biggest idol.
Also a homie in Argentina and be well-known as the greatest basketball player, Manu Ginobili makes a great impression with spectators for years and has many remarkable similarities with Lionel Messi. If you are fond of both football and basketball, you will understand clearly the connection between Kobe Bryant with Messi as well as Barcelona. On the contrary, the 10th player of Nou Camp also has a special interest in the orange ball.
Messi started taking up basketball since 2008 when he first saw Manu Ginobili playing it. This was also the main reason why he wanted to give it a try with this sport. At that time, Messi had his first achievements in basketball and he was the coach of the Argentina team in Hongkong Olympic Games. This was the first time he had a chance to meet the talented player Manu Ginobili. “ Manu is the pride of Argentina’s citizens because not many people in the NBA can do the things he did before. I have asked myself whether I would have an opportunity to make friends with him one day.”- Messi shared his thinking toward the people that he admires most.
His wish finally came true when he accidentally met Ginobili in the same flight of Argentina’s team to Hongkong. The thing that made Messi happy was the appearance of Spurs’ superstar in the semi-final many years ago. We didn’t know exactly how Lionel Messi felt but it became the best motivation for him to make a remarkable performance at that time. “ I felt very surprised when he came to the stadium where the competition was running and helped me have more energy to overcome the hardships. He said that he really liked watching me playing football. Why I can not do the same thing to become a good basketball like him?” – Messi explained the reason why he decided to play basketball.
Both of the two famous players have many similarities that their fans can easily realize: the big dream, various medals in life, great efforts to do everything, encouragement for sports lovers,…. They are the ones that almost all of Argentina’s citizens admire.