Lionel Messi is being hailed as the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) of the football world by netizens, after he led Argentina to an iconic victory at the FIFA World Cup 2022 final, beating France.
Fans flooded pictures and video edits of the World Cup Champion all over social media. Amid many such clips, a video of Messi’s childhood went viral. The video, shared by Newell’s Old Boys on Twitter, is perhaps the Argentinian superstar’s first ever post-match interview.
For the unversed, Messi played for the Argentinian club Newell's Old Boys from 1995-2000, before moving to Spanish Giants Barcelona.
The video was captioned, "A young Lionel Messi speaks after a goalscoring performance for Newell’s Old Boys. This may be his first ever post-match interview."
In the video, the young Messi was asked whether he knows he is selected as the ‘Man Of the Match’. He quickly replied with blushed cheeks “no”.
He was then asked to describe his goal. He smiled and said, “The ball came from Federico Rosso Griggini gave it to Lucas, Lucas gave it to me and I scored it.”
When asked who he will dedicate his goals to, Messi said, “I will dedicate it to my father, to my uncle, to all my family, to all the people who know me.”
The clip is garnering a lot of traction on Twitter, with more than 600k views.
Netizens lauded Messi in the comments section, praising his humility and how he naturally acknowledged the contribution of his teammates.
"This is greatness, Messi acknowledging his teammates when asked about his goal indicates how humble he’s always been," one user wrote.
Another added, "He was born to play football. His greatness was known right from childhood and he grew up becoming the GREATEST PLAYER."
Argentina lifted the World Cup trophy on Sunday after a nail-biting match at the Lusail stadium in Qatar. This is the third World Cup trophy in the country’s history after 1978 and 1986.
Messi also won the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball for the second time. He now has all the trophies at both the club and international levels.
