The childhood of Antonella and Lio in Rosario
Rosario, Santa Fé, is the third city in Argentina, today it has just over 1.7 million inhabitants and it was in this city on the banks of the Paraná River that the soccer player and Antonella were born.
Lionel Messi was born on June 24, 1987 at the Garibaldi Italian Hospital in Rosario. The parents, Jorge Horacio Messi and Celia María Cuccittini, were the third child in the family, after Rodrigo and Matías, and after Lio María Sol was born.
Antonella Roccuzzo is just one year younger than the footballer, born on February 26, 1988, being part of a family of three sisters: Paula and Carla.
Although they lived in the same city, their social outlook was not at all close. She was studying in a private school, Latin American Educational Center, where she practiced fencing and gymnastics. For his part, he was in the Primary School No. 66 General Las Heras, playing in the streets of his neighborhood he crept in until he became the captain of the neighborhood team, Club Abanderado Grandoli.
Everything stays in the family
A cousin of Antonella, he played in the children’s categories of the Newell’s Old Boys, Lucas Scaglia, club that Lio participated in at the age of 7 in 1994. The two children became very good friends. In the austral summer of 1996 Lucas invited Lionel to spend the summer with his family in Mar del Plata, where he would meet Antonella for the first time. It was at Punta Mogotes Beach where he fell in love with her. A childish love.
The uncertain future and puberty
When Messi’s growth hormone deficiency was discovered, he was only 11 years old. Through letters that he wrote since he met “the black woman”, as his family calls Antonella, he confessed his love for the girl. However, his sporting future was taking a turbulent course, not being able to separate from Newell’s to go to River Plate and receive support, his father decides that they go to Spain to try their luck at Barcelona at the age of 13, it was the year 2000 .