Don't give up on your dreams

He loved soccer from a young age, but an incident at the age of 10 hit him hard. At that time he was attending training with the Newell's Old Boys team.

　　One afternoon, his team was playing a soccer match with another team in the same age group. Several times, his teammates passed the ball to his feet, but he was so nervous that he closed his eyes when facing the goal, which resulted in the ball always passing through the goal. Due to his many missed opportunities, his team ended up losing badly. At the end of the game, he closed his eyes in pain.

　　In the locker room, many partners put their fingers to their mouths and booed him in derision. One of his peers took his shoes and spit in them, then proudly showed them to the rest of the team and gave him the nickname "Stinky Shoe King". He was so upset that he thought maybe he wasn't cut out to play soccer, so he should just give up.

　　With his head down and distracted, he walked home alone, unable to stop crying.

　　When he saw a frog looking curiously at his teary-eyed self, he got a little angry and prankishly peed on the frog. But he found that in the process, the humiliated frog has maintained a posture, still bulging a pair of round eyes looking at himself, did not dodge, did not escape.

　　He was a little puzzled and a little lost, and returned home unhappy, telling his father everything that had happened today. His father told him that a person should think, like the frog with a high posture, face injustice and accept defeat.

　　That night, his mind was shaken, his inner dream began to recover, and he felt that the humiliated and unyielding frog is his best teacher.

　　He secretly vowed: I will also work hard in the face of adversity, enter the best team, become a great player like Maradona, reach the top of soccer, and become the world footballer! From that day on, he played soccer for more than 8 hours a day and methodically kept studying and training. The criticism from the coach, the accusation from his teammates, he could face them all openly, holding his head up confidently and walking his way step by step, with only one goal in his eyes: the goal.

　　A year later, he encountered another hurdle: at the age of 11, he was diagnosed with a deficiency of developmental hormones, which prevented his bones from growing. In September 2000, at the age of 13 and only 140 cm tall, he was invited to try out for Barcelona. He was like a frog on the field, sticking to the target and hitting three in a row. As soon as the trial was over, the club directors did not hesitate to register him with the club and arrange for him to be treated in the best hospital. In the 38 junior matches he played that year, he scored a total of 31 goals.

　　The World Youth Championship has always been considered a stage for talented players to showcase themselves. When the curtain of the 15th World Youth Championship slowly fell in Utrecht, Netherlands, he, an Argentine teenager of only 1.69 meters tall, left a giant's back to the world. Due to the poor performance of the Argentine team in the group stage, it was thought that the team would not be able to go far, but it was his outstanding performance that saved the team. As the soul of the Argentine team, he was at the center of the World Youth Championship from the knockout stage, eventually leading the Argentine U21 youth team to the World Youth Championship title and winning the best player of the World Youth Championship himself. At the end of 2005, he has voted the best new player in Europe in the "Golden Boy Award" organized by the Italian sports newspaper All Sport.

　　His name is Leo Messi, a Barcelona striker and Argentine international who is affectionately known as the "new Maradona" and who has fulfilled his vow with his near-perfect play. Twenty days later, at the 19th FIFA Awards Ceremony in Zurich, Leo Messi won the title of "Mr. Football of the World 2009" with a golden trophy, smiling and saying. "Don't close your eyes and play football, keep your eyes on your goal. If you work hard, your dream is not far away."

　　Let us remember Messi's mentor, the frog who suffered a urine blow and still tilted his head and bulged his eyes.

　　Focus, put all your strength together, work tirelessly towards your goal, be determined, and don't care about other people's blows and ridicule, as long as you have a goal, have an incomparable positive attitude, don't give up, and willing to put your heart into it, you will eventually get out of trouble. The world will accept you, and your dreams will become reality step by step.