As hype builds around the 2018 World Cup, PAPER unveils its first-ever sports-centric issue in partnership with adidas. To commemorate the release, Barcelona FC‘s Leo Messi stars on the landmark cover aside a goat — a straightforward representation of Messi’s legendary status.
The cover story runs through Messi’s brief, yet successful, career on the pitch. From humble beginnings at La Masia — “He was extremely short,” Messi’s teammate Gerard Piqué notes — to his jaw-dropping run in 2009, which saw Barcelona nabbing all six possible titles it could have earned in one single year. Elsewhere, the star forward touches on a host of different topics, from his favored tea to his take on his own Argentinian national team: “We still have to make ourselves stronger as a team to be in the running to win and be at the same level as other teams like France, Germany, Brazil or Spain,” Messi notes. “But we have a good group of players and the Argentine team is always going to be a candidate to win, it doesn’t matter how we get there.”
Read the full feature over on PAPER’s site.
Unfortunately for Messi, FIFA 18‘s World Cup predictions aren’t kind to Argentina.