[osullivj]

This comment is wild :) In Europe we send our best athletes into athletics, not sport. Athletics is track and field, which reduces to speed, strength and endurance. Sport - football, cricket, tennis - is about technical mastery first, and only secondarily the speed strength and endurance to support it. Lionel Messi and Sachin Tendulkar would both have been deselected by any athletic selection procedure. The emphasis on athleticism over technical mastery is what makes American sport boring.

[the_sleaze_]

Messi was in a full time Futbol Academy playing futbol 6 hours every single day when his physical attributes diverged away from his peers.

He also runs a 4.6-second 40 meter dash, well fast enough for the NFL combine.