Barcelona star, Lionel Messi can be cloned as claimed Genetics expert Arcadi Navarro, head of the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA).
Navarro
made the claim during an interview on Spanish radio station Cadena SER,
where he aid the player can have a double with the use of existing
technology and techniques, The Sun UK reports
A clone of
the Barcelona superstar would arrive as a baby with the same potential
as one of the greatest players ever. Navarro said:
“Yes, Messi could be cloned with current techniques.
“We
would achieve a being very similar to Messi, the result would look like
Messi’s twin, as if two twins had been born and we had frozen one of
them for 20 or 30 years.
”However, it is no guarantee that
Mini-Messi would end up being as good as the real version – because of
environmental and educational impacts as well as experience.
The real Messi joined Barcelona as a tiny 13-year-old from Argentina’s Newell’s Old Boys.
He’d had growth hormone deficiency and needed to have treatment for four years from the ages of 10 to 14.
He
then spent years at Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy honing his
skills, before playing alongside the likes of Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry,
Xavi and Andres Iniesta to become one of the best players in the world.
Navarro says that all those factors make Messi the player he is today – something that might not be replicated in a Messi clone.
The
scientist added: “This person could have the same potential as Messi,
his qualities have a genetic component and another more educational,
environmental.
“Messi isn’t who he is only because of his genes,
but because of everything he has lived through, his education, his stay
in La Masia, the treatment he received.
“Genetics give us potential, then to fulfil it, it’s our own work.”
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