IT SEEMS STRANGE to think now, but not so long ago, Lionel Messi’s international career had been primarily defined by a sense of disappointment and underachievement.
Right from his debut, when he received a red card less than two minutes after coming on against Hungary so harsh that it was labelled “a crime against football” by Tim Vickery, up to the 2018 World Cup, when a Jorge Sampaoli-managed team suffered a defeat to France that was more comprehensive than the 4-3 scoreline suggests, there was a foreboding sense that carrying the hopes of a nation on his shoulders was too much for Messi.
At the 2006 World Cup, he became the youngest player to represent Argentina at the tournament and score, coming off the bench and producing a clinical finish in the 88th minute of his side’s 6-0 victory over Serbia and Montenegro.
Yet it was the teenager’s only goal at the tournament, and Messi was controversially snubbed by manager Jose Pekerman in their quarter-final with Germany, which they lost 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Pekerman’s team took the lead in the 49th minute through Roberto Ayala from a corner by the man preferred to Messi in the number 10 role - Juan Riquelme.
With time running out, Argentina were forced to make one change – reserve goalkeeper Leonardo Franco came on after number one Roberto Abbondanzieri was injured.
Messi represented Argentina at six World Cups. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Argentina were also leading as the more defensive-minded Esteban Cambiasso replaced Riquelme.
And just before the Germans equalised, a like-for-like change saw Hernán Crespo withdrawn for Julio Cruz up top.
The 2010 World Cup felt like another missed opportunity.
Messi was by then an automatic starter and coming off his first Ballon D’Or win.
But Diego Maradona never convinced as a manager the way he had as a player.
Argentina struggled through qualifying and were not much better during the tournament proper, exiting in the quarter-finals after suffering a 4-0 defeat to Germany.
Messi finished the tournament without scoring. Maradona failed to get the best out of the heir apparent, and the team looked imbalanced and tactically inept.
In 2014, Argentina and Messi were much better. The latter scored four times and was named the tournament’s best player.
But not for the first time, it all ended in anticlimax.
Alejandro Sabella’s side reached the final but were beaten for the third World Cup in a row by a superior German team.
Despite inspiring them to within a game of glory, Messi looked exhausted amid the 1-0 extra-time defeat and struggled to have an impact.
This setback kicked off a series of near misses. Messi’s Argentina lost the Copa América finals in both 2015 and 2016 on penalties against a stubborn, defensively well-organised Chile side.
Lionel Messi (10) shoots his penalty kick wide during the 2016 Copa America final defeat. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
The latter disappointment prompted the then-29-year-old’s first retirement from international football, saying: “For me, the national team is over.”
“I’ve done all I can. It hurts not to be a champion,” he added.
Messi soon had a change of heart and Argentina hired the man who had orchestrated Chile’s Copa América victory over them - Jorge Sampaoli.
Had the eight-time Ballon D’Or winner retired after the 2018 World Cup, it would have been understandable. He was 31 with seemingly his best days behind him, and the maestro had been key to Argentina reaching four finals of major tournaments (he was named the best young player at the 2007 Copa América when they finished runners-up after a 3-0 defeat to Brazil).
Yet the appointment of Lionel Scaloni, a teammate of Messi when he was making his Argentina debut in 2005, changed everything.
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Maradona was among the critics to dismiss the credentials of the little-known Scaloni, and the cash-strapped Argentine football association would not have appointed him – initially as a caretaker manager – under normal circumstances.
But what looked like an act of desperation turned out to be a revelation – both for Messi and the team.
Messi played with and under Lionel Scaloni (pictured above) for Argentina. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
As author and football historian Mark Orton told The 42 earlier this year:
“There was just no ego whatsoever. He comes to Messi and says: ‘What do you need to make this team work?’ And just really [it was about] planning the team around him, and it has worked perfectly ever since.
“In 2019, they came third in the Copa América after some very dubious refereeing decisions in the semi-final against Brazil, and so again, that’s a tournament they potentially could have won, but they beat Chile [in the third-place playoff], and they have just won every competition since.”
So often in international football, managers are condemned for indulging veteran stars at the expense of the team – this was true of both Roberto Martinez/Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlo Ancelotti/Neymar at this summer’s World Cup.
And while these criticisms are often valid, Scaloni did exactly that with Messi and an unprecedented run of success followed.
The plan was simple enough. Let Messi do what he wants essentially and fill the team with dynamic, young players who would compensate for the star player’s relative lack of energy and willingness to work off the ball.
The 2021 Copa América win feels especially significant. Without it, it is hard to imagine any of the subsequent triumphs.
It is a watershed moment for Messi and Argentina. The luck that had been conspicuously absent for the first 15 years of the ageing player’s international career suddenly came through. Exorcising the ghosts of Chile in 2015 and ’16, they beat Colombia in a penalty shootout with Messi among the scorers.
Owing to Covid restrictions, just 6,500 people were in attendance as Argentina beat Brazil 1-0, ending the former’s 28-year wait to win the trophy.
A period of relentless success followed – arguably the most memorable in the country’s football history – and it was only in this summer’s World Cup final that they at last remembered what defeat felt like.
The start of Messi’s remarkable Argentina run also coincided with the end of his 21-year association with Barcelona, the club he had given so much to and won everything for.
Messi and Argentina celebrate with the World Cup trophy. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
In darker times with Argentina, he was accused of caring more about Barcelona.
“He’s nicknamed in certain magazines and papers, ‘El Catalan,’ the Catalan, so there’s a suspicion he tries harder for Barcelona, that he’s more interested in succeeding with Barcelona than he is with the national team,” Orton recalled.
“They called him ‘pecho frío,’ which means cold-hearted, and he was not [considered] a full-blooded Argentine, as Maradona would have been.
“He’s lambasted for not singing the national anthem. So there was that kind of backlash, and certainly within Argentina, he was nowhere near as revered as Maradona would have been in the past.”
In his retirement statement, Messi made a pointed reference to these accusations: “I swear I always gave everything, not only in these last few years when we won everything, but before that too.”
And while the suggestions he lacked passion for the national team were patently unfair, perhaps this Barcelona departure made possible those revelatory final six years of his international career.
At Barça, he was the centre of everything and suffered pressure akin to the great expectations of his nation.
At PSG, by contrast, he was one of a trio of superstars, along with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, and they seemingly won Ligue 1 matches with their eyes closed at times.
In addition, the level and intensity at MLS outfit Inter Miami were nowhere near as high as at previous clubs, and this change of pace contributed to his longevity with Argentina.
Lionel Messi celebrates the 2022 World Cup win with family. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
He retires with more goals (125) and caps (207) than any other Argentine footballer.
We will never see his like again.
It ended with six years of unparalleled success that are impossible to imagine without the preceding 15 years of struggle and disarray.
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Sport is defined by failure as much as success. Ask football's greatest-ever player
Updated at 22.51
IT SEEMS STRANGE to think now, but not so long ago, Lionel Messi’s international career had been primarily defined by a sense of disappointment and underachievement.
Right from his debut, when he received a red card less than two minutes after coming on against Hungary so harsh that it was labelled “a crime against football” by Tim Vickery, up to the 2018 World Cup, when a Jorge Sampaoli-managed team suffered a defeat to France that was more comprehensive than the 4-3 scoreline suggests, there was a foreboding sense that carrying the hopes of a nation on his shoulders was too much for Messi.
At the 2006 World Cup, he became the youngest player to represent Argentina at the tournament and score, coming off the bench and producing a clinical finish in the 88th minute of his side’s 6-0 victory over Serbia and Montenegro.
Yet it was the teenager’s only goal at the tournament, and Messi was controversially snubbed by manager Jose Pekerman in their quarter-final with Germany, which they lost 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Pekerman’s team took the lead in the 49th minute through Roberto Ayala from a corner by the man preferred to Messi in the number 10 role - Juan Riquelme.
With time running out, Argentina were forced to make one change – reserve goalkeeper Leonardo Franco came on after number one Roberto Abbondanzieri was injured.
Argentina were also leading as the more defensive-minded Esteban Cambiasso replaced Riquelme.
And just before the Germans equalised, a like-for-like change saw Hernán Crespo withdrawn for Julio Cruz up top.
The 2010 World Cup felt like another missed opportunity.
Messi was by then an automatic starter and coming off his first Ballon D’Or win.
But Diego Maradona never convinced as a manager the way he had as a player.
Argentina struggled through qualifying and were not much better during the tournament proper, exiting in the quarter-finals after suffering a 4-0 defeat to Germany.
Messi finished the tournament without scoring. Maradona failed to get the best out of the heir apparent, and the team looked imbalanced and tactically inept.
In 2014, Argentina and Messi were much better. The latter scored four times and was named the tournament’s best player.
But not for the first time, it all ended in anticlimax.
Alejandro Sabella’s side reached the final but were beaten for the third World Cup in a row by a superior German team.
Despite inspiring them to within a game of glory, Messi looked exhausted amid the 1-0 extra-time defeat and struggled to have an impact.
This setback kicked off a series of near misses. Messi’s Argentina lost the Copa América finals in both 2015 and 2016 on penalties against a stubborn, defensively well-organised Chile side.
The latter disappointment prompted the then-29-year-old’s first retirement from international football, saying: “For me, the national team is over.”
“I’ve done all I can. It hurts not to be a champion,” he added.
Messi soon had a change of heart and Argentina hired the man who had orchestrated Chile’s Copa América victory over them - Jorge Sampaoli.
But it was another unhappy marriage, amid reports of bitter infighting. Sampaoli denied rumours that Messi was dictating Argentina’s team selection and tactics.
Had the eight-time Ballon D’Or winner retired after the 2018 World Cup, it would have been understandable. He was 31 with seemingly his best days behind him, and the maestro had been key to Argentina reaching four finals of major tournaments (he was named the best young player at the 2007 Copa América when they finished runners-up after a 3-0 defeat to Brazil).
Yet the appointment of Lionel Scaloni, a teammate of Messi when he was making his Argentina debut in 2005, changed everything.
Maradona was among the critics to dismiss the credentials of the little-known Scaloni, and the cash-strapped Argentine football association would not have appointed him – initially as a caretaker manager – under normal circumstances.
But what looked like an act of desperation turned out to be a revelation – both for Messi and the team.
As author and football historian Mark Orton told The 42 earlier this year:
“There was just no ego whatsoever. He comes to Messi and says: ‘What do you need to make this team work?’ And just really [it was about] planning the team around him, and it has worked perfectly ever since.
“In 2019, they came third in the Copa América after some very dubious refereeing decisions in the semi-final against Brazil, and so again, that’s a tournament they potentially could have won, but they beat Chile [in the third-place playoff], and they have just won every competition since.”
So often in international football, managers are condemned for indulging veteran stars at the expense of the team – this was true of both Roberto Martinez/Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlo Ancelotti/Neymar at this summer’s World Cup.
And while these criticisms are often valid, Scaloni did exactly that with Messi and an unprecedented run of success followed.
The plan was simple enough. Let Messi do what he wants essentially and fill the team with dynamic, young players who would compensate for the star player’s relative lack of energy and willingness to work off the ball.
The 2021 Copa América win feels especially significant. Without it, it is hard to imagine any of the subsequent triumphs.
It is a watershed moment for Messi and Argentina. The luck that had been conspicuously absent for the first 15 years of the ageing player’s international career suddenly came through. Exorcising the ghosts of Chile in 2015 and ’16, they beat Colombia in a penalty shootout with Messi among the scorers.
Owing to Covid restrictions, just 6,500 people were in attendance as Argentina beat Brazil 1-0, ending the former’s 28-year wait to win the trophy.
A period of relentless success followed – arguably the most memorable in the country’s football history – and it was only in this summer’s World Cup final that they at last remembered what defeat felt like.
The start of Messi’s remarkable Argentina run also coincided with the end of his 21-year association with Barcelona, the club he had given so much to and won everything for.
In darker times with Argentina, he was accused of caring more about Barcelona.
“He’s nicknamed in certain magazines and papers, ‘El Catalan,’ the Catalan, so there’s a suspicion he tries harder for Barcelona, that he’s more interested in succeeding with Barcelona than he is with the national team,” Orton recalled.
“They called him ‘pecho frío,’ which means cold-hearted, and he was not [considered] a full-blooded Argentine, as Maradona would have been.
“He’s lambasted for not singing the national anthem. So there was that kind of backlash, and certainly within Argentina, he was nowhere near as revered as Maradona would have been in the past.”
In his retirement statement, Messi made a pointed reference to these accusations: “I swear I always gave everything, not only in these last few years when we won everything, but before that too.”
And while the suggestions he lacked passion for the national team were patently unfair, perhaps this Barcelona departure made possible those revelatory final six years of his international career.
At Barça, he was the centre of everything and suffered pressure akin to the great expectations of his nation.
At PSG, by contrast, he was one of a trio of superstars, along with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, and they seemingly won Ligue 1 matches with their eyes closed at times.
In addition, the level and intensity at MLS outfit Inter Miami were nowhere near as high as at previous clubs, and this change of pace contributed to his longevity with Argentina.
He retires with more goals (125) and caps (207) than any other Argentine footballer.
We will never see his like again.
It ended with six years of unparalleled success that are impossible to imagine without the preceding 15 years of struggle and disarray.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Lionel Messi Soccer Argentina Barcelona Wave Goodbye World Cup