ESL Reading Comprehension + Writing Activity - Lionel Messi - Football
Lionel Messi's career — from a childhood growth-hormone deficiency in Rosario, Argentina, to his 2022 World Cup win with Argentina — is the subject of a biographical reading passage built for ESL practice. Nineteen questions follow the two-page passage, covering his early years at Barcelona's La Masia academy, his rivalry-turned-respect with Cristiano Ronaldo, and two true-or-false statements students must argue using textual evidence. A vocabulary task asks students to supply three synonyms for 'extraordinary' and explain the meaning of 'humble' as the passage uses it. Two writing prompts extend the reading into original composition: an essay comparing Messi to another athlete, and a diary entry imagining a day spent with him.
