# GRACIAS, LEO — El niño que nunca dejó de soñar

## Master

- Runtime: **2:30.00** (150 seconds)
- Picture: 1920 × 1080, 25 fps, 16:9, H.264 / yuv420p
- Sound: AAC-LC stereo, 48 kHz, 160 kb/s
- MP4 fast-start (`moov` before media data); final file is below 64 MiB
- English subtitles are in `subtitles.srt` and are also burned into the master
- `hero.png` is a 1920 × 1080 poster made from an AFA farewell photograph

The film follows a 1999 Rosario youth match into Messi’s Barcelona years, the Argentina shirt, the final defeats, the return and the 2021 and 2022 wins. It closes on photographs from his Argentina national-team farewell. The 6 October 2026 match was his Argentina farewell; this film does not say he retired from club football.

## Edit and source log

Source times below refer to each linked upload. The local excerpt’s start and end are listed in seconds. Dates, match identities and clip identities were checked against the linked official match sources and the biographical sources in the next section. A source being online does **not** grant reuse rights. No footage or photograph reuse licence was obtained; this is an uncleared tribute/review master, not a cleared commercial release.

| Film time | Picture / sound | Source and source time | Rights / notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00–00:20 | Messi, age 12, playing for Newell’s against El Torito in Rosario, 31 October 1999. Match ambience and Spanish local commentary. | [Goal en español, “Así jugaba Messi de chico en las inferiores de Newell’s”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT7yw-vqKNA), 00:51–01:11. The match/date are corroborated by [Rosario3](https://www.rosario3.com/deportes/Asi-jugaba-Messi-de-pibe-en-Newells-un-partido-completo-de-1999-20210607-0094.html) and [El Gráfico](https://www.elgrafico.com.ar/articulo/memoria-emotiva/28615/1999-messi-a-los-12-anios-en-una-final-tremenda). | Real moving archival footage, but the accessible upload is a secondary publisher, not an original Newell’s or broadcaster archive. Original camera/broadcaster and clip reuse status remain unverified. The opening title is editorial text. |
| 00:20–00:43 | Barcelona passage: Messi’s first official goal against Albacete, 1 May 2005. | [FC Barcelona, “Messi’s first official goal for FC Barcelona”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9ihJMqZGD0), 00:57–01:20. | Official club upload; copyright/reuse permission not obtained. Editorial caption: at 13 he left Rosario; Barcelona supported treatment for his diagnosed growth-hormone deficiency. Caption fact checked against the [FC Barcelona player biography](https://players.fcbarcelona.com/en/player/548-messi-lionel-andres-messi-cuccitini). |
| 00:43–00:52 | Argentina U-20 final against Nigeria, 2005; Messi celebrates and Argentina lift the trophy. | [FIFA, Argentina–Nigeria U-20 final highlights](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7OAscsUgXU), 01:52–02:01. | FIFA archive clip; reuse permission not obtained. |
| 00:52–01:01 | Messi’s senior Argentina debut at the 2006 World Cup against Serbia and Montenegro. | [FIFA, Argentina–Serbia and Montenegro](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dQXiqS56Y4), 00:08–00:17. | FIFA archive clip; reuse permission not obtained. |
| 01:01–01:10 | Argentina’s loss to Germany in the 2014 World Cup final; the sequence stays with the aftermath. | [FIFA, 2014 final highlights](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffAYByv2pLc), 01:22–01:31. | FIFA archive clip; reuse permission not obtained. |
| 01:10–01:20 | The 2016 Copa América Centenario final loss to Chile; Messi and teammates after the shootout. | [FOX Soccer, “Lionel Messi emotional after heartbreaking loss in Copa America final”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ7DWNLyrbo), 00:18–00:28. | Broadcaster upload; reuse permission not obtained. No interview words are attributed to Messi in this passage. |
| 01:20–01:41 | Argentina’s 2021 Copa América final against Brazil, including the De Paul pass and Di María goal. Original Spanish commentary is heard with concise English subtitles. | [CONMEBOL Copa América, Argentina–Brazil full match](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iigBYqMXmeA), 21:07–21:28. | Official competition upload; reuse permission not obtained. |
| 01:41–01:52 | Argentina–France, 2022 World Cup final: late match and Argentina’s celebration. | [FIFA, “The Greatest Final Ever?! Argentina v France”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhEWqfP6V_w), 01:46–01:57. | FIFA archive clip; reuse permission not obtained. |
| 01:52–01:59 | Messi with the World Cup during Argentina’s 2022 presentation. | [FOX Soccer, Messi and the trophy presentation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dZOsaUAilg), 23:00–23:07. | Broadcaster upload; reuse permission not obtained. |
| 01:59–02:21 | Four gently animated AFA photographs from the Argentina–Benin match and farewell at the Monumental, Buenos Aires, 6 October 2026. The photos show the anthem with children, Messi with teammates, and the walk among supporters. | Production inputs were AFA photographs named `WebN-himno.jpg`, `Web-mesimic.jpg`, `_ONZ2340-2.JPG`, `_ONZ2658-2.JPG`, from [AFA farewell coverage](https://www.afa.com.ar/es/posts/musica-emocion-y-fiesta-en-la-despedida-de-messi) and [AFA’s final-anthem coverage](https://www.afa.com.ar/es/posts/lionel-messi-conmovido-en-el-ultimo-himno-de-una-era). | These are still photographs with a slow pan/zoom, not moving archival footage. AFA copyright; permission not obtained. No farewell speech or stadium recording is used. |
| 02:21–02:24 | Brief return to the 1999 Newell’s match, echoing the opening. | Same Goal en español upload as opening, 01:08–01:11. | Same secondary-source and rights limitations as the opening. |
| 02:24–02:30 | Original end card: “Gracias, Leo. / Por no dejar de intentarlo. Por hacernos creer.” | Created for this edit. | Editorial text. |

The date, venue, 3–0 score and Messi’s goal in the Argentina–Benin farewell were checked against [AFA’s match report](https://www.afa.com.ar/es/posts/la-seleccion-argentina-despidio-a-lionel-messi-con-una-goleada-ante-benin). AFA’s [farewell speech article](https://www.afa.com.ar/es/posts/el-idolo-que-hablo-con-el-corazon-jugar-en-la-seleccion-argentina-fue-lo-mejor-que-me-paso-en-la-vida) provides context, but its speech audio was not accessible for this edit, so it is not quoted. The [FIFA account of his 2016 step-away and return](https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/articles/messi-final-farewell) was checked as historical context. The film uses the 2014 and 2016 final losses; it has no 2015 final footage and does not include a 2024 Copa América sequence.

## Music and subtitles

The score is original procedural audio generated by `production/render.py`: a restrained synthesized piano-like harmonic motif and a soft sustained chord bed, with a quiet opening, a rise around 2021–22, and a fade under the final card. It uses no sampled commercial song, lyrics, generated voice or voice clone. Original match/broadcast sound is retained under the archive clips; score is mixed below it. The Spanish Newell’s and 2021 commentary excerpts stay in Spanish and are translated in `subtitles.srt`. The Barcelona treatment sentence is identified as an editorial fact caption, not dialogue. Other audible English broadcast calls remain in English.

## Production and checks

The edit logic is retained in `production/render.py` and `production/finalize.py`. The source bundle limit for this delivery is 8 MiB; the downloaded footage, intermediate renders, raw audio, and bundled FFmpeg/Python dependencies exceeded that limit, so they are not included in the submitted source tree. The scripts document the edit but cannot be rerun from this package alone. The source URLs, clip identities, and source timecodes above are the retrieval log. Re-rendering requires obtaining the source media, verifying its current availability and reuse terms, and supplying FFmpeg, Pillow, and NumPy locally. No third-party reuse licence was obtained.

Checks actually performed:

- Rendered and inspected the MP4 stream metadata: 150 seconds, 1920 × 1080, 25 fps, H.264 High / yuv420p, AAC-LC stereo at 48 kHz.
- Inspected representative frames from the opening, each chapter, both subtitle passages, the farewell photographs and the final card. The check was frame-based; no complete real-time playback or listening review was available in this environment.
- Confirmed the poster dimensions and file type, and checked that the subtitle cues fall within the corresponding footage.
- No official moving AFA footage or clean stadium audio from the 6 October 2026 anthem, farewell or speech was accessible. The film therefore uses sourced AFA photographs in that final chapter and does not present them as video. The 2015 final and 2024 Copa América are not pictured.
- The four required deliverables total approximately 52 MiB; the master is approximately 50 MiB and the poster approximately 1.5 MiB.