He didn't take steroids.

Growth hormones ARE steroids.

Humble Rex wrote:

Not the same thing at all Klaus.

It’s the exact same thing. They both had a medical condition stemming from a birth defect that prohibited them from functioning as normal humans. They both received medical treatment for it and were able to eventually succeed as professional athletes because of it. What do you think Kanu was administered with to get over his heart surgery?

First of all Kanu replaced a valve in his heart, not his heart. That is also beside the point though. At the time of his operation, after a medical with Inter, he was already an established pro having won both the CL and an Olympic gold medal. In other words - he had already "made it". The surgery didn´t enhance his ability on the pitch at all.

It did relative to where he was before surgery, which is the exact point you made about Messi. I think it's clear that you don't understand how growth hormone treatment works.

To be honest i dont think anyone here knows what he took or what barca pumped him with but, what surprises me more is how messi is literally a freak of nature, yet no one even mentions he took drugs during his development which in sport is usually very controversial. Toure and rio ferdianand being a few examples of how sensitive the issue can be.

Barca didn't "pump" anything in him at all

They made sure that he could afford a normal, recurring treatment administered by a normal doctor just like hundreds of thousands of other, normal people. Jesus fuck. You guys make it sound like they they've got a mad scientist in a lab somewhere cooking up performance enhancing drugs to inject their players with.

He wasnt just a normal person to barca, they followed him for years from his youth and made sure he developed into the guy who has become possibly the worlds greatest ever footballer, that doesnt just happen.

He needed the treatment anyway and the story behind it is that his father was looking for a football club to sponsor it because his family couldn't afford to pay it. He had a friend at Barcelona so he took Messi there (wish he had a friend at Arsenal)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20120206/barca-extract/

Getting the medical treatment that you need is not cheating, Messi needed the hormones so he could grow at a NORMAL rate. The drugs only allowed his body to grow at the rate it was supposed to

Klaus wrote:

It did relative to where he was before surgery, which is the exact point you made about Messi. I think it's clear that you don't understand how growth hormone treatment works.

Of course I understand the treatment. Don´t be condescending just because your Kanu example was crap. You are better than that Klaus. Mostly.

Why is Messi a freak of nature?

Klaus wrote:

Barca didn't "pump" anything in him at all

They made sure that he could afford a normal, recurring treatment administered by a normal doctor just like hundreds of thousands of other, normal people. Jesus fuck. You guys make it sound like they they've got a mad scientist in a lab somewhere cooking up performance enhancing drugs to inject their players with.

He used to work for Juventus before but was fired.

Being pumped with something isnt literal by the way, and it doesnt mean they gave a magic potion either.

Humble Rex wrote:

Of course I understand the treatment. Don´t be condescending just because your Kanu example was crap. You are better than that Klaus. Mostly.

You clearly don't understand it because you're still here arguing over it. The Kanu example was perfect. It highlighted the absurdity in your reasoning.

Now you are just being full of shit Klaus. You are being obtuse if you can´t get that Messi has had immense advantages as a footballer due to his treatment in comparison if he had NOT had the treatment.

Anyway, as I said, more or less, in my second post on this subject I think - I am merely curious about what you guys think about it. It was an interesting topic to discuss. Personally, I don´t have a problem at all with Messi.

I'm baffled by your points to be honest, Rex.

I can live with that.

Humble Rex wrote:

Now you are just being full of shit Klaus. You are being obtuse if you can´t get that Messi has had immense advantages as a footballer due to his treatment in comparison if he had NOT had the treatment.

I'm so stealing that. I've needed a new tagline for a while.