A love story: When Messi fell for Antonella

As a young Newell's hopeful, Leo used to hang around his best friend's house in the hope of running in to his friend's beautiful cousin, who years later would become his partner.

The street has not changed much, but the other side of the park now has two synthetic pitches, known to everyone as No. 3 and No. 4. It has undergone alterations, of course: where previously stood a wall with the great talents who have come out of there, now there is a huge mural of Marcelo Bielsa's face and another with the likeness of Isaac Newell, the founder of one of Rosario two great clubs.

The Malvinas park, where the Newell's youth teams still train in seven-a-side games, not 11, was the place where countless…