The young Salvadoran Levi Sandoval, who fulfilled his dream of meeting Lionel Messi when he came to the country with Inter Miami, traveled to Spain to see the Barcelona Football Club. The invitation was officially made by German goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen.
Levi, who suffers from Russell-Silver syndrome (RSS), was able to take the field alongside Lionel Messi in the game that the Selecta played against Inter Miami this year.
Levi Sandoval, 16 years old, was born in Santo Tomás, 20 minutes from the capital of San Salvador, with Russel-Silver syndrome, which has prevented him from growing and having a normal weight.
And on January 19, when El Salvador faced Inter Miami in Cuscatlán, he fulfilled his dream of meeting Lionel Messi, someone who had a condition like his as a child.
“Out of millions, a child is born with this syndrome,” explains his mother Dulce María Sandoval, “when Levi was born he weighed two pounds and they gave him only six months to live,” she adds in the report by Juan Carlos Díaz Murrieta and Jonatán Ávila broadcast by TUDN.
Levi then identified himself on television with Lionel Messi because in some way he was like him.
«I started to see his story. And I realized that he had the same problem as a child. “That he did not produce growth hormone,” explains Levi himself.
«Then he has assimilated, he has associated his situation with the fact that he is also given growth hormone. He says that it doesn’t even hurt him because he says that it didn’t hurt Messi either when they injected him,” says Doña Dulce María.
In Lionel Messi, Levi found a way forward, admiration for him motivates him daily.
«It has helped him to set goals and to be able to say that he is going to move forward just like Messi. For Levi, Messi has been a kind of mentor, someone he can imitate and be successful,” says Levi’s father, Julio Melara.
So his mother committed to fulfilling his dream.
“Meeting him (Messi) and being able to go out on the field hand in hand with him,” says Levi about what he was looking for from Messi.
And he did it, before the game he was able to meet Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Súarez who autographed balls and shirts for him.
Later, his dream came true. She met Mési on the day of the match. Hand in hand with him, she walked to the center of Cuscatlán and sang the anthem of El Salvador.
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