Overview
- Journalist Florent Torchut published three previously unseen La Masía evaluation reports on Oct. 14–15, 2026 that were written during Lionel Messi’s trials in 2000.
- All reports praised Messi’s technique, citing vision, dribbling, passing and shooting, while two evaluators warned his small stature and weak build would hinder him in older youth categories.
- One evaluator recorded Messi’s height as 142 cm and wrote in capital letters “CREO QUE NO S’HA DE FITXAR,” recommending the club delay any signing and re-evaluate him later.
- A contrasting report compared the 13-year-old to Diego Maradona and urged immediate signing, and those divided opinions help explain why Carles Rexach formally committed to sign Messi on Dec. 14, 2000 despite internal doubts.
- The release adds primary-source detail about how La Masía balanced technical potential against physical risk and will shape how historians and scouts study Barcelona’s talent‑evaluation process going forward.