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According to a feature report by New York Times, a young Lionel Messi would score goals only if he was promised cookies by his youth coach during the days when Messi would play for Newell’s Old Boys.more.
Apparently, Messi loved milanesa a la napolitana — a breaded beef cutlet with tomato sauce and melted cheese cooked by his mother.
But during Messi’s early days, his youth coach Carlos Marconi from Rosario discovered Messi’s affinity towards alfajores, a kind of chocolate cookie. Marconi struck a deal with Messi that the latter would get a cookie for each goal scored and it became difficult for Marconi to keep count as Messi would score four to five goals in each game.
To make it easier for himself, Marconi came up with a new deal where he promised Messi two cookies per goal, provided each goal was a header.
The next game saw Messi as usual bamboozling his opponents and taking the ball forward and just as he was about to score he stopped, flicked the ball in the air and headed the ball into the empty net. He then turned towards his coach with a rise smile on his face, and showed him two fingers to ask for the two cookies that he had won.
Clearly, his eye for goal remains the same even today, although he might not be scoring for cookies any
