River Plate goalkeeper, Marcelo Barovero, has revealed Barcelona's Lionel Messi's two kind gestures when both their teams met during the FIFA Club World Cup competition earlier this season.
Barcelona went on to eventually win the competition with their 3-0 win over Barovero's River Plate but rather than focusing on the game or the performance, the keeper was left in awe of Lionel Messi's graciousness and kindness.
Recalling the match, Barovero says the first kind gesture was when Messi acknowledged and supported the keeper back to his legs after making an incredible save to deny the diminutive forward from scoring. "He came close to me and helped me up and stroked my head. And I told him I had just completed the dream of my son, to stop a shot from Messi," he said.
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But Barovero says the biggest compliment from the Argentine was not during the game but well past the final whistle. He asked Messi for his jersey but the five-time Ballon d'Or winner had already promised someone else he'd give it to them, so Barovero asked for Claudio Bravo's – Barcelona's goalkeeper – matchday jersey. To his surprise, he got a lot more than that.
"Messi left the dressing room with Bravo's shirt and his boots. And he told me, 'the boots are for your son'. I froze. It was a very big gesture," he said.
Off the field, the Argentine is said to be a very silent individual often helping those around him without questioning. On the field, he's the magician we all know he is. These kind of gestures only go on to prove the calibre of the person in question.
