Football gives all the opportunity to turn rusty streets into theater of dreams, the economic benefits that comes with football most times eclipses pains and rigor players may have faced in the antiquity in their bid to make their dreams materialize. There are many important players presently at the center-stage who have ebbed through a lot of financial constraints, but with persistence, believe, hard-work and positive mindset were able to attain enviable echelons and pedestals. These players are but not limited to the following:
LIONEL MESSI
Battled with hormone deficiency that restricted his growth, Messis parents Jorge and Cecilia, decided on a regimen of nightly growth hormone injections for their son, though it soon proved impossible to pay several hundred dollars per month for medication.
At the age of 13, he was offered the chance to train at soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona youth academy, La Masia, and have his medical bills covered by the team, Messis family picked up and moved across the Atlantic to make a new home in Spain. Although he was often homesick in his new country, Messi moved quickly through the junior ranks.
ADRIANO:
Before he climbed the center stage playing for the likes of Parma and Inter, he lived in Cruzeira- where drug traffickers notoriously murdered a TV Globo reporter, Tim Lopes in 2002. He was badly stricken by poverty but his dream to get his mother a mansion motivated him to pull the trigger of hardwork until his signing with Flamengo and quickly beckoned to Italy before his 20th birthday.
ROBINHO
He spent almost his teenage age as a street skill displayer in the city of Sao Vicente. It was Pele himself who swooped to bring the prodigy to Santos, naming the youngster as a chosen one to take the mantle with the club. His success at Santos, however attracted the attention of predators, who kidnapped his mother and released her after the payment of a ransom.
ALEXIS SANCHEZ
With his father clearly out of the picture, Sanchez mother was a mere cleaner in his school who tried so hard to make ends meet. He was always avoiding his mother in her duty post in school because of the shame and reprieve that came with seeing his mother being a mere cleaner. But by 16, Alexis made his professional debut, and it wasnt long after that Europe came calling via Udinese.
LUKA MODRIC
Modric was only five years old when the Croatian war of independence broke out in1991, and just months later, his grandfather was murdered in the war. He lived in an impromptu refugee camp in a hotel down in his village, Fleeing from grenades was a common thing for young Modric during his days at NK Zadar and he faced a lot of rejections even from his childhood club Hajduk Split.
ANGEL DI MARIA
Born a hyperactive child, His father who had dreams of being a footballer in his dream club River Plate got badly injured. He showed immense promise as a footballer and was bought from his original club for 26 balls by Rosario Central, riding by bike with his mother to advance his skill half-hour each day.
NEYMAR JR.
At a very tender age of four months, Neymar got seriously involved in an accident that his parents had considered him lost to death. He was from an impoverished home in Brazil and he went through hell to retrieve and develop his fitness when he got matured. He didnt take much time to get enrolled into the Santos academy after he was spotted to have massive skills and keen interest in football which he showed during his course of development. So much that Madrid flew him to Spain with his parents in 2013 before he returned home to Santos to continue his development until he finally returned to Europe and headed for Barcelona where his European journey started.
ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC
He is from Rosengard district of Malmo, His Bosnian father was an alcoholic, his Croatian mother something of a hard case. The pair spit when he was barely two years old. He involved in many street lifestyles while trying to find a living which is fully shown by the way he carry himself. Until he was 18 he was his only source of motivation and believe until he rose to the top.
LUIS SUAREZ
Born into a family with an unemployed father, it drove them with his six siblings to the capital of Uruguay from the Montevideo. He is Known for playing bootless and passing through a lot of trying moments until he got to the top.
CRISTIANO RONALDO
Lived in Madeira in Portugal where he was nurtured into a very fine footballer. He is by far a very renowned player who is very acquainted with his onions. He was born into a family where his father was a drunk, a womanizer and was always spanking his mother with ease. He was forced to share the same room with his three siblings and after some years signed at Sporting Lisbon but never had the opportunity to enter a plain until he joined Manchester United in 2003.
Many players cannot be discussed individually because the numbers will continue to go on and on. Many persons have been left to wade through a lot of sufferings, some being resulted by lack of finance of war or irresponsible families. Players like EtoO, Didier Drogba, Mane, Ziyeck , Dzeko and host of others have once or twice been interviewed and they explicitly told same touching stories that are worth empathy. Its graceful that they are presently at the top after having to pull through many hurdles to achieve those feats.
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