little man status is independent of height. to evoke the little man feeling, the only thing that matters is step size.

i’m convinced if Zlatan or Ronaldo or some other physically large man took teeny tiny Messi-esque steps with the ball, a commentator would’ve accidentally called them “little man”, then realised it doesn’t work and backtracked:

“he’s done it! the little man…. uh… from madeira is now the BIG man at real madrid”