The little messiah - Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi overcame a hormone deficiency and crippling poverty to grow into a sporting giant. As the player widely dubbed the world's best footballer arrives in town with FC Barcelona, Alan Pattullo salutes his triumph over adversity

LIONEL MESSI is a sports star for these trying times. There can be no better example of someone who has succeeded against the odds to excel in his chosen field, who has overcome physical as well as economical odds to star for one of the world's greatest football clubs. Tonight Messi and his team, Barcelona, will be on display in Scotland, playing Hibernian in the first of the Catalan side's two-game tour of Scotland. Murrayfield, normally home to hulking rugby stars, will be treated to the wiles of a player who required growth-hormone treatment when he was just 13.

He is still known in his Argentina homeland as La Pulga – the flea. His hair is long; his frame is not. Messi's determination to become a footballer enabled him to kick his physical limitations into touch.

His still-diminutive build gives hope to every child who has been told they are too small to ever distinguish themselves at sport. Messi is the archetypal 'wee man' who got his own back on playground bullies by terrorising his peers on the football field, the ball magically sticking to his little feet.

Messi currently vies with one other player – Kaka, AC Milan's much-coveted Brazilian forward – for the title of best player in the world. Unlike Kaka, who comes from a wealthy background, Messi was a poor South American kid, who levered himself out of poverty with a natural gift for footballing talent. Hailing from the industrial city of Rosario in Argentina, he had more to overcome than most.

His feet were his tools of expression but they were attached to a body that refused to grow. Aged 11, he was diagnosed with a growth-hormone deficiency and, with his father and his club, Newell's Old Boys, unable to pay for the necessary medication, it looked as though Messi's career was over before it had started. Barcelona, who had learned of his promise through a South American scout, stepped in and provided money to pay for the treatment, which cost £500 a month.

While his head won't scrape the roof of the tunnel as he walks out on to the pitch tonight, Messi – at 5ft 7in – is now, at 22, far taller than many who knew him as a child thought he might be. At 13 he had the body of a 10-year-old, but the daily hormone injections paid for by Barcelona meant he grew to a size where professional football was an option. Messi has sometimes been betrayed by his emotions in his attempt to break free from his boyish frame – playing against Celtic last season in the Champions League, he left the field in tears after being injured.

Barcelona invested time as well as money in Messi. He has been with the Catalan club since he was 13 and they heeded their own strict regulations on signing youngsters when it came to Messi. It is preferable that young talent comes from the Catalan area, but if a rare talent has been spotted elsewhere, then the club will pay for that youngster's family to accompany him. Great emphasis is placed on education in the classroom as well as on the pitch.

Messi's talents with a ball cannot be taught, however. Legend has it that Messi needed only five minutes of a trial match to convince Carles Rexach, the club's then youth co-ordinator and former player, to sign him.

It took just four years for Messi to break into the Barcelona first team. By the age of 21 he had already scored a hat-trick in the El Classico derby – against rivals Real Madrid. He has also scored a goal that some have compared with that of Diego Maradona's classic solo-effort for Argentina against England in the World Cup in 1986.

"He is so important to Barca," said Marc Guillen of the club's official television station, at the team's base in St Andrews yesterday. "He is loved by the fans because he is so humble. He just expresses himself on the pitch."

Guillen likens Messi's character to that of Henrik Larsson, the former Celtic forward who moved to the Nou Camp and impressed fans with not only his talents, but also his work ethic and modesty. Guillen only wishes for one thing – that Messi might one day say a few words in Catalan. "There was no real fear over whether Ronaldinho left Barcelona or stayed," he said. "Messi is bigger. But he is so shy and he doesn't like speaking to a camera. He can speak Catalan, but I think he does not want to show off."

This is something the little maestro cannot help doing on a football pitch.