“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything”.

January 9th, 2007. As one landscape-altering, pocket-sized entertainment phenomenon was being announced to the world by an immeasurably proud Steve Jobs, a teenage Lionel Messi cut a frustrated figure.

A fractured metatarsal in his left foot would keep him on the sidelines for three months, the second lengthy interruption to the 19-year-old’s Barcelona breakthrough, after a hamstring tear had ended his 2005/06 season and denied him a Champions League final appearance against Arsenal.

Despite his declaration that Apple were going to “reinvent the phone”, Jobs’ hopes for his new product were relatively modest: 10 million units sold, and a one per cent share of the mobile phone market by the end of 2008. That target was met comfortably. For Messi, having already missed seven months of football in his first three seasons, the objective was simply to gather some momentum. That December, he was voted runner-up in the Ballon d’Or behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

Escape velocity reached, both continued their upwards trajectories. By the end of 2012, Apple had sold well over 300 million iPhones, while Messi - whose rate of goalscoring had moved through the gears from prolific, to relentless, to the simply cartoonish total of 91 in that same calendar year - had won four consecutive Ballon d’Or trophies.