Before he became La Pulga, Leo Messi was known as Coloradito. He is still remembered that way in Rosario. “His hair was sort of reddish. At year-end tournaments, at seven or eight years old, parents would see him arrive and say, ‘Watch out, the coloradito, that number 10, is playing today.’ You knew you had already lost or were going to have an extremely hard time,” recalls Hernán, one of his opponents back then. “We were on a team called Estrellas Júniors and he was on another called Tiro Suizo. Once we met in the final, which was played over two legs, and we won both 1-0. We had one shot on goal and they had 20. They gave us 10 bicycles, one for each of us. Sometimes we talk about those things in the WhatsApp group,” he says.

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Antes de ser La Pulga, Messi era Coloradito. Así lo recuerdan todavía en Rosario. “Tenía el pelo tirando a pelirrojo. En los torneos de fin de año, con siete y ocho años, los padres lo veían llegar y decían: ‘Cuidado, hoy juega el coloradito, el número 10’. Sabías que perdías o lo ibas a tener extremadamente difícil”, rebobina Hernán, uno de sus rivales de entonces. “Nosotros estábamos en un equipo que se llamaba Estrellas Júniors y él, en otro que era Tiro Suizo. Una vez nos tocó enfrentarnos en la final, que era a partido y revancha, y les ganamos los dos por 1-0. Nosotros pateando una sola vez a portería y ellos, 20. Nos regalaron diez bicicletas, una para cada uno. A veces hablamos de esas cosas en el grupo de Whatsapp”, cuenta.

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