Teppo Järvinen

Didier Drogba: "When Messi, I and some of the players did an ad for a beverage company before the 2010 World Cup, Messi met some people in a remote village in the African forest, played football with them, but in the end he said to me in a serious tone, 'Didier, do you see that these people drink dirty water while we play for millions of euros?' The next day I heard from the company director that Messi donated his entire share of the ad to dig wells for the village and build a good hospital, school, playground and other things. The best thing is that he insisted on not mentioning his name in this donation. Six months later, Messi sent a doctor, an accountant and an engineer to the village to make sure that the money reached its owners and that the projects were actually built. Do you know the phrase that is still embedded in my mind to this day? On the plane back to South Africa, I asked him, 'Why all this secrecy?' He gave me an answer I will never forget: 'Because Africa doesn't need ads, it needs actions. And real actions don't need testimonials!' Messi's greatest goals were not scored in the goal, but in the hearts of those who do not know football! And whoever knows football will know that Messi is the best player in the history of football."