The story began a decade ago in the traditional magic realism genre of Latin America. The protagonist of this story is a famous Argentine filmmaker named Alex de la Iglesia. Iglesia made a documentary about Lionel Messi at that time. In addition to Messi in the documentary ‘Messi’, many other charioteers of the football world were seen.
Superstars like Andres Iniesta, Gerard Pique, Jorge Valdano, Johan Cruyff appeared in the documentary. Where they said about their thoughts about Messi. In the crowd of those stars, Valentino Acuña’s legs were not supposed to be seen by anyone, nor did they fall.
Then a lot of things were swept away by the flow of time. After crossing the reality of the documentary, Messi saw all the epic scenes of rise and fall. Apart from the story of Messi’s childhood, the relevance of that documentary gradually faded. Those involved in telling that story probably forgot about the story. But one could not forget. Perhaps the least talked about character in the documentary is that man, Valentino Acuña.
For Acuña, it wasn’t just about acting in a documentary, it was about being part of history. He does not say, ‘Reality is stranger than fiction’, like that. A literal story can’t be as much a story as it was for Acuña.
The beginning of that story was such that when Iglesia was thinking of making a film about Messi, at that time Iglesia and the film production company Mediapro Production got the clips of Acuña’s game for the benefit of YouTube. After watching those video clips, the filmmaker decided to use Acuna as a ‘body-double’ of Messi’s childhood. Then he found Acuña.
Hiding behind the decision to pick Iglesia Acuna was another truth. That was, the boy who did not yet cross the childhood became ‘Messi 2.0’ on the ball. His technique or dribbling skills on the left foot repeatedly reminded Messi of childhood. For that reason, Iglesia could not think of anyone else as an alternative to Messi.
On the other hand, there was no reason for Acuña’s father and guardian, Gustavo, to turn down the opportunity to play Messi. Such a proposal is like a dream. As a result, Gustavo handed over his infant child to Iglesia without hesitation. But there was more drama. Acunya has acted, but his face is not seen anywhere in the documentary.
In the scenes where he was seen, he was seen only doing tricks and dribbling for Messi’s childhood clubs Grandoli and Newell’s. Literally, in this film, not Acuña, her legs are acted. More specifically, the left foot. With that leg and body language, Acuna became the Messi of the screen. It can be said that this little actor and footballer erased the gap between acting and reality with his feet.