Argentina’s squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ was one of the most talented in the nation’s history. That really is saying something when you consider the South American country has been represented at the tournament by the likes of Ubaldo Fillol, Mario Kempes, Daniel Passarella and Diego Maradona.
Amongst the Argentinian aces aiming to lift the trophy on German soil were Pablo Aimar, Roberto Ayala, Hernan Crespo, Javier Mascherano, Juan Roman Riquelme, Javier Saviola and Carlos Tevez. Yet when these players trudged into the dressing room after training, more often than not it was the new kid on the block who had them shaking their heads in disbelief: Lionel Messi.
Not one for many words, the precocious talent did all of his talking on the pitch and had already secured a league title with Barcelona. Argentina’s stars would ask each other: “Did you see that goal he scored?”, “Did you catch that bit of skill?” or “Do you realise how many players he got past?”.
Despite being just 17 when the showpiece event got under way in Germany, Messi was already making his more experienced team-mates sit up and take notice. The highly-fancied Argentinians would ultimately be left empty-handed after they fell to a shoot-out defeat at the hands of the hosts in the quarter-finals following a 1-1 draw.
Ahead of the tournament, coach Jose Pekerman and his staff knew all about the fledgling forward. Although Messi had not yet announced himself to the world, those within the Argentina set-up were well aware that they had some player on their hands. After all, Messi was already shining brightly for Barcelona.
Back home, however, he remained a less familiar figure, having left Newell’s Old Boys to move to Spain aged 13. During his reign as La Albiceleste’s head coach, Marcelo Bielsa was shown some footage of the rising star.
A bemused Bielsa asked his assistant Claudio Vivas to play the video back at normal speed, convinced that the version he was watching had been sped up. It hadn’t: Messi’s slick moves were enough to deceive even the most attentive of viewers.
Still growing into his frame, Messi made his World Cup bow on 16 June 2006. His cameo in the team’s second group-stage outing, against Serbia and Montenegro, provided the cherry on the cake as Argentina breezed to a 6-0 win.
“We knew the kid had something special about him. Some of the things he was capable of doing were just unbelievable,” Maxi Rodríguez told FIFA. “The way he looked after the ball, even at full speed – everything he did blew us away.” The winger, who featured in three World Cups, had bagged a brace before making way for Messi in the 74th minute.
Among the substitutes that day was Lionel Scaloni, who watched on as Messi received his final instructions from Pekerman. Two decades on, Scaloni can still be found in the Argentinian dugout, now calling the shots as head coach. The teenage sensation sat between the experienced tactician and the team’s assistant coach, Nestor Lorenzo (now Colombia’s head coach) as he readied himself for action.
Rodriguez and Messi exchanged a double high-five, and the former whispered something in the youngster’s ear to give him some words of encouragement. Meanwhile, up in the stands, Maradona could barely contain himself, raising his arms aloft to urge Messi onto the pitch as if he were celebrating a goal.
“He was a pure dribbler,” remembered Rodriguez. “He’d get on the ball and you’d have thought he was dribbling through cones. He ghosted past his opponents. It was amazing, he made it all look so natural and straightforward.”
Argentina were already three goals to the good when Messi came off the bench. Within three minutes, he linked up with Riquelme before sending in a devilish cross that left Crespo with the simplest of tasks. It wasn’t long before Tevez added Argentina’s fifth.
With the Argentinians home and dry, the match seemed to be missing just one thing: a Messi goal. La Pulga duly obliged in the 88th minute, latching onto an inch-perfect Tevez pass before firing home a right-footed finish for the history books.
Another dozen goals would follow across Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, making Messi his country’s all-time leading scorer on football’s biggest stage. Messi also holds the record for the most appearances in FIFA World Cup™ history.
“He’d pick up the ball and glide past six or seven players just like that,” gushed Rodriguez. “As the years have gone by, he’s become more of a thinker, and his passing ability has come to the fore. He’s the greatest of all time and such a complete player.”
He added of his former team-mate: “He had another outstanding quality too: his finishing. He’d be running at full speed and still know exactly where the goal was. We always joke that, when we high-fived, I passed the magic on.”
One thing nobody could have imagined was Messi’s incredible longevity. Two decades on from his World Cup debut, he is once again poised to take centre stage at the tournament. He continues to write new chapters in a story that seems untouched by time.
His career has already delivered countless moments of glory, but there are still pages to be written. And they are sure to live up to the dreams of the boy who once dribbled past opponents as if they weren’t there and who is equally adept at tricking the hands of time.
Sources: FIFA Official
