Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit has hit out at the English press for their treatment of William Gallas.
Gallas was axed from Arsenal's 3-0 loss at Manchester City on Saturday after publicly criticising his team-mates in an interview given last week.
The 31-year-old Frenchman has been stripped of the Gunners captaincy by manager Arsene Wenger, but Petit, a former team-mate of Gallas at both Chelsea and the French national team, believes the media must take a share of the blame.
"The gutter press in England are doing their job well,'' he told L'Equipe TV. "They have a happy heart when they can hit out at a French player, and I am well placed to know that.
"They already did that with other French players such as (Eric) Cantona. It's been a year now that the press have tried to push Gallas out of Arsenal. Why? I have no idea.''
Petit, a member of Arsenal's double-winning side of 1998, believes his former club are already out of the title race but is adamant freezing out Gallas would not improve their fortunes.
"Arsenal, Arsene and Gallas cannot stop working together,'' he said. "When you see that the team have five defeats in 15 matches, you realise that they have worn out their joker in the the fight for the title.
"Arsenal can not alternate between the sublime of last year to the mediocrity of this season. Gallas is being singled out, but there is a lack of form in a lot of players.
"Gallas does not have unanimous support in the dressing room as captain. It's certainly a generational problem. Gallas' move did not stem from bad intentions but it has been perceived as such.''
Born in the Santa Fe province of Argentina in a family where soccer was king, Lionel Messi started kicking the ball at an early age and when he was just 5 years old, he joined thetraining sessions of the club his father was coaching at that time, Grandoli.
Although he was close to his father at Grandoli, they both knew this club would not be one to offer the young boy a future as a soccer player, so his father decided to take him to one of the most prestigious youth academies in Argentina, that of Newell's Old Boys. This happened in 1995, when Leonel Messi was just 8 years old.
Three years later, Messi was already showing promise and he was considered a huge future talent, but unfortunately he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency that could be treated, but its cost would be around $700 per month and the Messi family simply did not have that kind of money.
River plate wanted to pay for Messi's treatment, but they couldn't afford it either, with the Argentinean economy collapsing. Fortunately for the young player, FC Barcelona learned of his problem and decided to help out and put the life of Leonel Messi back on its rightful track. Messi soon signed with Barcelona's youth team and moved to Spain for his treatment.
Despite his small frame, he managed an impressive 35 goals in 30 matches and in 2004 he made his official debut for the senior squad of the Catalan team, in a local derby against Espanyol Barcelona. He was 17 years and 3 months old on his debut. He didn't play in a lot of other games in that season, but in May 2005, he managed to score his first official goal, against Albacete, becoming the youngest player to ever score a game for Barcelona in a league game.
From that moment, he was almost indispensable in Barca's first squad and although several thigh injuries kept him away from the pitch, he came back in force in the 2006-2007 season. Probably his most memorable match and the one that truly made him the big star that he is today was the El Clasico duel on March 10th 2007, where Barcelona met arch-rivals Real Madrid on Nou Camp.
Lionel Messi became the latest teen superstar of Argentine soccer in 2005. That year he was named the player of the tournament at under-20 World Cup; played his first game for the Argentine national team (against Hungary on 17 August); and scored his first goal (on 1 May) with the professional team FC Barcelona. That year Messi also turned 18. He was soon being compared to an earlier Argentine soccer hero, Diego Maradona. Like Maradona, Messi is an attacking, goal-scoring forward; Barcelona's official site calls him "highly creative." Messi was a member of Argentina's 2006 World Cup team.
