What do Lionel Messi and Charles Simonyi have in common?

Have you ever used Microsoft Word, Excel or any of Microsoft’s office applications? If so, then you have Charles Simonyi to thank – he’s the geek that developed them.

Simonyi was born and raised in Hungary during one of the most difficult times in the country’s history. After earning his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford in 1977, he worked at Xerox where he was part of a team that developed one of the earliest PCs before he joined Microsoft in 1981. As an international student Simonyi struggled with work visa issues for a few years till he applied directly to Bill Gates for a job at Microsoft. Gates, seeing the potential in Simonyi paid for all the paper work required for Simonyi to have the unrestricted right to work in the U.S. Little did he know that Simonyi would eventually develop the most profitable of Microsoft’s products – Microsoft office. He went on to develop other pioneering algorithms and computer programming conventions that form the cornerstone of many Microsoft applications. After interviewing Simonyi, Bill Gates realized that the guy was special. He was gifted. So he went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure he could exploit his talent. And boy, did he exploit that talent. Where would Microsoft be without Microsoft office?

Ultimately, spotting exceptional talent and creating an enabling environment that maximizes that talent is what distinguishes great CEOs from good CEOs. Gates gave Simonyi the room to bring the full complement of his creativity to bear in developing office and in the end, a game-changing application was created.

So what does all of this have to do with football or Lionel Messi? Simonyi’s experience is similar to that of Messi in a few ways. Messi was born in the small town of Rosario, Argentina in 1987. Football scouts from FC Barcelona saw him play and immediately realized that he was gifted. In 2000 at the tender age of 13, the club paid for all expenses to relocate Messi and his family from Rosario to Barcelona. Messi needed his family with him because he had some health issues – he had to undergo treatment for growth hormone deficiency which Barcelona fully paid for. So just like Simonyi’s case, some C-level executive with decision making power saw the potential in Messi and decided to do whatever it took to exploit his talent. Messi didn’t debut for Barcelona until 2004. He spent four years in training at Barcelona’s football academy after his treatment. For someone to invest that much time and money in untested talent shows the strong conviction of FC Barcelona’s bet on Messi.

But it didn’t stop there. Just as Gates gave Simonyi the room to maximize his creativity; Barcelona’s coach Pepe Guardiola allows Messi room for creativity by setting up the attack formation around him. Messi is at his best when Barcelona plays the 4-3-3 or the 4-3-2-1 formation. Football may seem simple on TV but it’s a highly technical game. Realizing how gifted Messi is; Guardiola always tries to use this formation or variants of it (such as their deadly 3-4-3 formation) to ensure that Messi is at his peak performance. The results speak for themselves. Messi has won multiple UEFA Champions League titles with Barcelona in addition to winning the Spanish La Liga multiple times. He is the first footballer to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or for three years in a row.

So why does Argentina have the world’s best player yet hasn’t won a major tournament since winning the world cup in 1986?  Clue – it’s not because Messi doesn’t play his heart out for his country. Messi loves Argentina dearly – Spain offered him citizenship to convince him to play for the Spanish national team but he chose to play for his country of birth even though he and his family have lived in Spain since he was 13. So if he loves Argentina so much why isn’t he at his peak when he plays for his country? The answer lies in leadership (or a lack thereof). Part of the reason for Argentina’s lackluster performance on the international stage is because they lack a tactical coach who will exploit Messi’s talent.

Former Dutch international Johan Cruyff noted that Argentina’s technical bench needs to study Messi – figure out what makes him tick so they can exploit his talent.

Exceptional talent is rare and so when a team is lucky to have such people; they should be treated as such. Obviously football is a team sport but the likes of Messi and Pele belong to a class of their own – and should be treated accordingly. Finding that sweet spot – the optimal situation in which super-stars coexist effectively and efficiently with the rest of us, is often illusive. CEOs and coaches that find that sweet spot turn out to be the greatest.

Argentina’s new coach Alejandro Sabello named Messi captain of their national team in August 2011. It’s taken them this long to realize that the kid is gifted – let’s hope they’re able to exploit his talent to the fullest. It would be nice to see Argentina square off against arch rivals Brazil in the 2014 world cup finals which will be hosted…where else?… in Brazil.