# The Boy from Rosario *A Biography of Lionel Messi* — Legendary Biographies No. 140 - **Subject:** Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini - **Written by:** Maximiliano Costa - **Shelf:** Sport / Football - **Published:** 2026 - **Extent:** 197 pages, 6 × 9 in, 60# uncoated cream, black ink - **Paperback:** $19.99 — 6 × 9 in · 197 pp · 60# uncoated cream, black ink · perfect-bound paperback - **EPUB:** $3.99 — EPUB 3 · DRM-free · reads on Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books (ISBN 979-8-90623-120-8) - **Audiobook:** $5.99 — Unabridged · measured from the masters · read by Gideon Marsh (ISBN 979-8-90623-215-1) Buy it, or read the opening free: volumes/140-the-boy-from-rosario.html ## About this book He was born on June 24, 1987, in Rosario, Argentina, the third of four children of a steelworker named Jorge Messi and a cleaner named Celia Cuccittini. He was diagnosed with a growth-hormone deficiency at ten. His Argentine clubs could not afford the $1,000-a-month treatment. FC Barcelona, after a Carles Rexach private trial, offered to pay it on the back of a Buenos Aires-restaurant napkin in December 2000. He moved to Barcelona with his family at thirteen and made his La Liga debut at seventeen on October 16, 2004. Across the next twenty-one professional years he has won, as of 2026, eight Ballons d'Or, ten La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, the 2022 World Cup (his first), the 2024 Copa América (his second), and the 2024 MLS Cup with Inter Miami. Maximiliano Costa's biography traces the arc through the Rosario childhood and La Maquina del 87 youth team, the Barcelona arrival and La Masia academy years, the long Pep Guardiola era of 2008-2012 and the tiki-taka Champions League years, the long Argentina-team disappointment and the 2014 World Cup final loss to Germany, the long Spanish tax-fraud trial of 2016 and the August 2021 departure from Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain, the two-year PSG run, the July 2023 signing with Inter Miami, and the long Mascherano coaching era from November 2024 onward. What emerges is a portrait of the Rosario boy whose growth hormone the Barcelona scouting director chose to pay for — and the most decorated footballer in the history of the sport. ## Contents 1. Rosario 2. The Diagnosis 3. The Napkin 4. La Masia 5. The Debut 6. Guardiola 7. Argentina's Rejection 8. Copa América 2016 9. The Tax Fraud 10. Maracanã 11. Lusail 12. The Barcelona Farewell 13. PSG 14. Inter Miami 15. Copa América 2024 16. The Numbers 17. Antonela 18. The Quiet 19. Chase Stadium ## Questions **Who is The Boy from Rosario about?** Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini. The title never carries the subject's name: it names one concrete thing out of the life — in this case The Boy from Rosario — and the name goes on the line underneath. **Is this an authorised biography?** No. No subject, estate, label or foundation had approval over the text, and none paid for a word of it. The cost of that independence is that no new interviews were conducted for the book; it is built from the public record, and it says on the page where a scene is reconstructed rather than documented. **Can I read some of it before buying?** Yes — the whole opening chapter and the writer's foreword, free and in full, with no email address and no account. That is 4,107 words of the book. **How long is it?** About 63,000 words, 19 chapters, 197 pages in the paperback. **What is the printed book like?** 6 × 9 in, 60# uncoated cream, black ink, perfect-bound paperback, matte laminate. Every title in the series uses the same specification, so they line up on a shelf. ## The writer Maximiliano Costa is a Buenos Aires-based sports journalist who has covered five World Cups for Olé and four Olympics for Clarín. Over three decades in press boxes across the globe, he has focused on the cultural impact of sports. His biographies of footballers focus on the lives outside the eighteen-yard box. In his books, including The Azteca Quarterfinal and The Boy from Rosario, Costa looks beyond the pitch to examine how local communities shape global sporting icons. He uses deep archival research and local interviews to construct his portraits. He lives in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where he collects vintage football match programmes and teaches sports writing workshops.