20 years later, Messi remembers his debut with Argentina: “It was very special” :: Olé

June 29, 2004 It is not just another day in the history of Argentine football. That cold night in La Paternal was the first time that Lionel Messi wore the Argentine national team jersey, in a friendly match specially organized to protect him, so that Spain would no longer have any chances to tempt him into playing for La Roja.

It’s been 20 years since that day and Leo won everything with the National Team, but he also played everything: South American and U-20 World Cups, Olympic Games, seven Copa Américas, qualifiers, friendlies, five World Cups and counting… He is the player with the most appearances in the Argentina shirt, the historic scorer and who has a collection of titles: U-20 World Cup, gold medal in Beijing, Copa América 2021 at the Maracaná, Finallisima in London and the unforgettable World Cup in Qatar.

Leo, who continues his recovery from the contracture in the adductor of his right leg and who aims to reach the quarterfinals of the Copa America, live June in a very special way: it is a month of emotional moments in your life. His debut in the World Cup against Serbia and Montenegro, his birthday and his first time with that U-20 team.

Messi, who always says that he doesn’t think about records or anniversaries, had some words for this very important June 24th. “The truth is I didn’t remember the exact date, But I do have it very much in mind. That day was very special: I played against Paraguay, where I think we finished 8-0 and I scored a goal,” he said.

Leo, in a video that will be posted on the Argentinos Juniors social networks, also confessed that “I never went back to the Argentinos stadium after that match. But it is a special place because that is where my journey with the national team began.”. A path that continues today, 20 years later, and which has him as the greatest figure in world football.

“At that time I didn’t imagine it.” Who knows that a legend lies ahead? Hugo Tocalli, Lionel Messi’s first stoppage in the National Team, he admits it. Neither he, nor Pablo Alvarado, the teammate who owed fifty pesos for the travel expenses that the AFA gave to the players for trips abroad, nor Ezequiel Lavezzi, Pablo Vitti or Federico Almerares, members of that 8-0 that 20 years ago meant the captain’s debut in the U20your first step to eternal glory. A victory against Paraguay in which Leo came onto the pitch in the second half wearing the number 17 shirt. And the first thing he did was take the ball and face it at speed, the same thing that surprised – according to the urban and football myth – Marcelo Bielsa when Claudio Vivas brought him a VHS with the best plays of who was already a budding Barcelona star. .

Those friendlies against Paraguay and Uruguay also confirm those groups that became eternal like the legend of their protagonist, They were conceived by Tocalli and Julio Grondona to achieve the shielding of that boy who would become a living myth, with pure feint and dribble. The one who, timidly, arrived at the Ezeiza grounds and heard his first instructions from Tocalli’s mouth, in addition to receiving permission to pass through Rosario on that weekend prior to the tour.

With short hair, Leo’s magic was seen from that first time. If even Joseph Pekermanalready coach of the Major, called Tocalli to tell him that he could not leave him on the bench in the next match of that series of friendlies, in Colonia against Uruguay. Nobody imagined, however, that the excitement generated by having a player of these characteristics in the squad would end up in the most wonderful football story ever told in this century. Thank you, Leo.