And where would he be right now?

He would learn of the Urban legend Zanetti....drink Copious amounts of Milk and end up being 6 ft 2 with the same skills.

I can see him in Palermo or Udinese. In Serie A definitely, who love their Itagentinos.

Would be great, although he wouldn't be the star he is right now, of course.

Might even end up in Madrid.

Oh, and Barca would suck. :lucas:

Zanetti drank half a litre of milk a day, I read this here couple days ago. Is that really an unusual amount, for Argentine people?

I live in Finland and we drink a lot of milk, I have drank about a litre a day whole my life. So the Zanetti story sounds really rather normal to me.

I don't think that's an unusual amount. One of my roommates in America drinks 2-4 every day (he's also super-built), so I'm definitely not impressed by the Zanetti diet.

Zanetti had same growth problems as Messi and overcame them with diet alone :lucas: :dance:

Was he ever diagnosed or was he just making a comparison?

If Messi played in River

NO ESTAMOS EN LA B
NO ESTAMOS EN LA B
NO ESTAMOS EN LA B

He'd be just as good and he'd replace the steroids with GOATmilk!!! Lots of GOATmilk!

Messi drank goatmilk

This explains so much

He wouldve learn Argentine National anthem atleast

bhends wrote:Messi drank goatmilk

This explains so much

lol, copious amounts I'd hope.

He wouldn't be at Barca, so average at best.

If he took the same treatment, wouldnt he be of the same quality?

What would happen is that we would have snagged him when he was 19, made him handsome rich and moar talented, and Barca would have 1 European Cup.


:lucas:

Not paying messi's treatmen was only another reason why River has let me down recently...

Bhends I don't think anyone in the world loves the Tano Pasman as much as you do

He'd be at Madrid. Might have even joined at the same time we joined Higuain.

Also Camel milk = Drink of champions.

(drinking too much would be bad for you though)

That's actually a possibility. They're both about the same age, it wouldn't be impossible for Messi to take up Higgy's place at River and thus attract the attention of giants. But I don't think Real would've been the only ones interested in his talent.

Anyways, I'm prepared to argue that Messi would be just as good as he is now, but perhaps less successful, if he had not gone to La Masia.

This is a team game so success is something you can't really predict since he might have ended up at a different team.

He's still great though and it's not like he wouldn't have learned skills such as one touch passing and 1-2's at River.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Bhends I don't think anyone in the world loves the Tano Pasman as much as you do

This is true

He would probably play like an Argentine, not a Catalan. He would probably have been nurtured in the n10 role and be able to be organise play as a n10 instead of being a tiki-taka specialist and having to rely on the vision and quality of his teammates so much

A bit on the nationalist side, aren't we fellow?

I honestly think that he would have been remained a forward having been brought up by us. A player of his speed and strength hardly ever remains in the midfield.

Nirgall wrote:A bit on the nationalist side, aren't we fellow?

I honestly think that he would have been remained a forward having been brought up by us. A player of his speed and strength hardly ever remains in the midfield.

I dont know, when i watch messi its like watching a player with the ability to run the game but he just doesnt know how. Hes incredible in his forward position but i still see it as a waste, hes got natural vision and technique to have been the playmaker. Argentina doesnt know how to play with this catalan footballer

Diego Armando Maradona wrote:

Nirgall wrote:A bit on the nationalist side, aren't we fellow?

I honestly think that he would have been remained a forward having been brought up by us. A player of his speed and strength hardly ever remains in the midfield.

I dont know, when i watch messi its like watching a player with the ability to run the game but he just doesnt know how. Hes incredible in his forward position but i still see it as a waste, hes got natural vision and technique to have been the playmaker. Argentina doesnt know how to play with this catalan footballer

It'so unfair to call him catalan when he has made so many (unnecessary) statements to show loyalty for his country.

And to be honest, I think his playmaking skills are a more recent development and he is still fine-tuning them. He still has time to adapt them to the NT.

And I don't really like to base all our hopes on him either, he generally does better than the rest of the NT players. Should he always have to do that much better? It makes more sense to try to create a team that can collectively achieve thing and have him simply as one more. A very good one, but not the sole hope.

His playmaking skills are not recent at all. If I remember correctly he played the 10 role in La Masia, and if you look at his footage at 10 years old (the latest one released) you can see him making defense splitting passes.