MESSI: "I felt great training with ROMAN"

When asked about who is going to be the best player in Venezuela 2007, Lionel MESSI was the name in the minds of more than 30% of the people at the Copa America’s official website, with ROBINHO (Brazil) a distant 5th (7%) in the people's choice.

Who is going to be the star of Copa America?

MESSI (Argentina)
33,39%

Matías FERNANDEZ (Chile)
22,08%

José ARANGO (Venezuela)
11,36%

Jefferson FARFAN (Peru)
8,06%

ROBINHO (Brasil)
7,05%

Other
5,54%

Diego FORLAN (Uruguay)
3,88%

Iván CORDOBA (Colombia)
3,35%

Oswaldo SANCHEZ (Mexico)
2,60%

Ulises DE LA CRUZ (Ecuador)
1,43%

Jaime MORENO (Bolivia)
0,90%

Salvador CABAÑAS (Paraguay)
0,36%

Soon after his 20th birthday (celebrated away from his family and WITH the national team, just like his 19th last year in Germany and hopefully it’ll be the case every year, as the major tournaments are played always around the same time of the year), Lionel MESSI talked to the media and said some interesting things about various subjects.

He had time to talk about RIQUELME and said “I felt great in Yesterday’s training with him. We played very close to each other, with the ball on the ground, played a couple of one-two combinations. Same as I play with AIMAR”.

Being under millions of eyes the 24 hours is not something that is easily handled by a teenager, but Lionel is not afraid of fame. “I don’t mind signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans. It is a great way for me to say thanks for all the love they give me”.

“With Brazil there is mutual respect. We are, clearly, the main title contenders. We have an important squad and we have the desire to face them”.

It doesn’t matter that his head is 100% set in the Copa America, LIO still has time to welcome new team-mate Thierry HENRY to FC Barcelona: “Who doesn’t want to have HENRY in his team? I feel proud to have him as a team-mate”.

And finally, MESSI confessed there is a defect he wants to correct soon. “I don’t know how to take free-kicks. I think it is just a matter of training hard and start hitting the ball”.