Lionel Messi and the Will to Compete

All credit for this article goes to the website, “Changing the Game Project.”  It is a great article about the importance of competing, using Lionel Messi as their muse.  In my opinion, competing is the most important character trait in athletes, young and old.  You can read the article in full here.

“Competing for Lionel Messi is not a sometime thing; it is an all-time thing. He has always been smaller than the other kids. He was born with a growth hormone disorder, and as a child was nicknamed “the flea.” Clubs would not sign him because he was too small. Even when FC Barcelona brought him to Spain at age 13, he was always undersized. He had to learn grit, and persistence, and guile. The more you kicked him, the angrier he got, and the better he played.

The will to compete does not simply show itself in games. As his former Barcelona teammate Thierry Henry said, it showed in practice too.  He isn't a sometimes competitor: he is an all-time competitor. 

We have a trend in youth sports today to measure lots of things, from speed and agility to free-throw percentage and body fat. But how can we measure and encourage competitiveness? Isn’t that as, or even more, important?

One of the first things I look at when evaluating a team or player is “do they compete?” An athlete who competes is more likely to spend the time and effort on their own to improve because the desire for excellence burns so deeply. I want these types of kids.”