Which was Messi's first youth club before Newell's Old Boys?

Messi's first youth club before Newell's Old Boys was Abanderado Grandoli. He joined the Rosario neighbourhood club Grandoli in 1992, when he was about five years old, and played there until moving to Newell's youth system in 1995.

Grandoli was a small local club in the southern part of Rosario, the Argentine city where Messi was born. His maternal grandmother, Celia, reportedly took him to training and matches during his earliest football years. At Grandoli, his unusual dribbling ability and eagerness to play against older children quickly became noticeable.

Messi spent the next five years with Newell's Old Boys, where he developed into a prolific youth player and reportedly scored hundreds of goals. He later moved to Barcelona at age 13, after the Spanish club agreed to help address his growth-hormone treatment. Grandoli is often shortened to simply “Grandoli,” but Abanderado Grandoli is the club's fuller name.