Around Argentine footballer Lionel Messi's Neighborhood

Messi left La Bajada when he was 13 years old, but he is still present there in the form of paintings and people's memories.

Rosario, Argentina :

Susana Araus, who is 70 years old, can recall what her neighbourhood used to look like: playing cards with friends, a throng of screaming kids racing through the streets, going to the pool, or squabbling over a football.

A small youngster who was there in the middle of it all and discovered the holes that mattered helped put this remote region of Argentina on the map of the world.

Araus characterised Lionel Messi, one of the best players in the world, as "like any other youngster."

La Bajada ("the slope down"), a neighbourhood in the medium-sized city of Rosario, was Messi's boyhood hangout.

One of the young players who played football with Messi, Barbara Sossi, 33, said that he "was always really modest." Just how it is now. He has always been as you perceive him to be.

Messi spent six years playing for the youth team of one of Rosario's top local teams, Newell's Old Boys, scoring close to 500 goals. With the help of his skill, his family was able to go from Argentina to Spain, where he had therapy for a growth hormone shortage and began a 21-year career with Barcelona.

Messi rose to fame as a world-renowned player with the Catalan club. With the Argentine in the lineup, Barcelona won a record 35 championships, including 10 La Liga, seven Copa del Rey, and four UEFA Champions League.

Given that he has won football's top honour seven times, he is the most decorated Ballon d'Or winner. He led Argentina to the Copa America championship the previous year. He is currently putting on his shoes to play in his fifth and most likely last World Cup, the coveted trophy he has thus far failed to win.

There are a lot of folks like Araus and Dawydowycz in Messi's neighbourhood.

Dawydowycz has been in this area for 50 years and is now 75. She and her husband relocated to the United States in the early 1970s for three years, during which time she worked at a handbag factory in New Jersey to earn money for her La Bajada home.

. She talked about Messi and the families they both raised with Araus. They remembered Messi's grandmother Celia, who lived nearby and urged coaches to start playing him when he was a youngster.

When Messi points to the sky to celebrate a score, he is saying "thank you" for her because she died when he was 10 years old.

He was, according to Dawydowycz, "a really decent youngster."