The incredible anecdote behind the viral photo of Carboni and Messi :: Olé

The story is moving. The story of the boy who in just seven years went from taking a photo of his idol to knocking down walls with him just days before the start of the Copa América. Not even his best dreams could be realized… And as expected, after the final whistle, social networks made the kid who emerged from the Lanús Inferiores a trend and along with this the photo of the boy with Messi in 2016 went viral in which he commented: “With the best in the world, my idol.” But of course, there is a detail that was not seen, Carboni thanks Rodrigo and Lautaro Acosta. The story behind? Rodrigo Acosta, Lautaro’s brother, revealed the Olé story. “I pretended to be my brother so Valen would have the photo,” he says.

Rodrigo Acosta is the brother of Lautaro Acosta, Lanús idol, and a great friend of Ezequiel Carboni, former Granate coach. In 2017, when Rodrigo was Valentin’s father’s field assistant in the Grana Reserve and trainer of the current Monza player in the youth team of the southern Buenos Aires team, he promised that if Laucha was summoned to the National Team he would take Valentín to the Ezeiza property to meet Messi.

“I was a coach in the 2005 category and we were champions in 2017. Valentín, who was the best player in that tournament, told me that he wanted to meet Messi. At that time, in addition to being the 2005 coach, I was a reserve field assistant, where Ezequiel Carboni, Valen’s father, directed. And at that time I told him that if Lautaro was taken to the National Team, I would take Valentín to meet Messi,” said Rodrigo with Ole. The summons arrived and everything promised is owed…

And he had to comply… After Jorge Sampaoli’s summons for Lautaro Acosta to be part of the list to face Uruguay and Venezuela in the Qualifiers for Russia 2018, Rodrigo approached the Ezeiza site so that Valentín could meet his idol. But of course, the plans got complicated and Rodrigo Acosta had to figure out a way for the kid to meet Messi.

“When they summoned Lautaro, I took him. And if there is something I had never done, it was pretend to be Lautaro. When we arrived at the property I was waiting for my brother to approach where we were so that he could give us a hand and That’s when a kinesiologist approaches me and tells me: ‘Laucha, look, I’m ready to massage you.’ And there they sent me to what was the medical area, which was the only place where we were going to be able to see Messi,” Acosta tells Olé.

And it continues: “The truth was that if we didn’t go there we weren’t going to see him because we were with all the relatives and they weren’t going to pass by there. I didn’t get to do the massages and the kinesiologist told me that I would stay there with Valentín because the players were going to pass through that area. “We stayed and after a while Messi appeared so we could take a photo of him with Valentín.”

And of course a detail that was almost not seen in the photo of 10 and Carboni, one of his sides in the next Copa América 2024 is that the kid not only thanked his idol but also Lautaro Acosta and Rodrigo Acosta, who were the great creators of a photo that today travels throughout the country to tell the story of the boy who in seven years made a dream come true.

“At that time Valen’s Instagram account was managed by his mother, Carla, but he thanks me and my brother for the photo with Messi. He hasn’t spoken to Valen in a long time, but when he was here we had a great relationship. We get together with his dad every day,” concludes one of the trainers of the kid who today is part of the National Team that will seek the two-time continental championship.