If you don’t know who Lionel Messi is you won’t enjoy this book much. If you do, you probably will. But if you know who Messi is and you’ve got at least a 2:1 in English, comp. lit. or similar, you are going to absolutely love it. This is definitely one for the football aficionado as well as for fans of fine writing.
Messi is an Argentinian footballer who’s played for Barcelona for his entire professional career. He’s short. He’s modest. And he never takes a dive. Apart from his appalling tattoos, he’s the very opposite of what you might expect of the modern footballer — an Argentinian Roy of the Rovers. (Indeed, apart from Pelé, he’s the only South American footballer that my father, an ancient, tough-as-nails Alf Tupper-type, has ever had any time for.)
Jordi Puntí is a Catalan novelist and journalist, and he loves Messi. He really loves him.
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