A video of a young Indian boy acing a perfect free kick in the style of legendary footballer Lionel Messi has gone viral.
In the video, the young boy is seen wearing Messi’s Argentina jersey in a field and placing the football down to take the free-kick. The boy takes a few steps and aims at the top corner of the goal post where he has placed a ring like structure. The boy places his hand on the hips, just the way Messi stands and settles his hair. He then curves in the top left corner of the post and celebrates like Messi by sitting on the floor and pointing his fingers at the sky and thanking god.
A budding footballer from Kerala recreating a free kick of Lionel Messi. #LionelMessi #Argentina #FCBarcelona pic.twitter.com/SSXn1kbekN
— The Kitemaker آغا طارق علی یار (@AgaThariq) May 3, 2020
The viral video has attracted praise for the youngster and several have called it pure talent.
Pure talent.. 👌
— B.N (@BN34772728) May 3, 2020
Wow..hope he continues to excel and truly becomes India's Messi
— venkat (@venkat1962) May 4, 2020
Some have urged the Indian sports authorities to train the kid who comes from the Malappuram District of Kerala.
@India_AllSports can you tag the right accounts who can follow and train this kid? @BeingMinchu @RijijuOffice @KirenRijiju
— Anushka Sivakumar (@Nushie7292) May 3, 2020
Known for his curvy top corner free-kicks, Lionel Messi has scored 52 goals out of the 697 all time career goals in 856 appearances form club and country from set pieces.
Messi has won 6 Ballon d'Or awards and a Guinness Book of World Records title for scoring the most official goals in a calendar year when he scored 91 goals in 2012.