Messi’s Argentina farewell marks end of a relationship built over two decades

When Lionel Messi plays his final match for Argentina against Benin at Buenos Aires’ Monumental stadium on Tuesday, he will close an international career that began with the country’s football authorities struggling even to identify him.

What developed from that uncertain start became one of sport’s most enduring relationships: a bond between a national team and a player who spent much of his childhood and career abroad before becoming its defining figure.

“He went through so many moments that they’re really very different eras. At first he suffered enormously with the national team. He truly endured it,” Argentine journalist and author Sergio Levinsky told Reuters. Levinsky wrote Messi and Everything Else.

Messi moved to Barcelona as a teenager, where Spain attempted to persuade him to play for their national side. In Argentina, meanwhile, there was little awareness of the prodigy from Rosario.

At the 2003 Under-17 World Cup in Finland, Spain defeated Argentina 3-2 after extra time in the semi-finals. Cesc Fabregas, then Messi’s team-mate at Barcelona’s La Masia academy and a scorer of two goals in the match, reportedly told Argentine delegates afterwards: “You lost to us because we’ve got your best player at Barcelona and he’s a genius.”

Argentina youth coach Hugo Tocalli described a similar exchange at the Ole Summit last month. He said Spain’s head chef told him Argentina needed “a kid who plays in Barcelona” if they were to win the tournament.

Even locating Messi proved complicated. Argentine Football Association (AFA) employee Omar Souto found the family in Spain through a Rosario telephone directory, but asked for “Leonardo”.

“His name isn’t Leonardo, it’s Lionel,” he was reportedly told, according to the documentary Messi: The Forgotten Tape.

The administrative confusion continued when the AFA sent Barcelona a fax asking about a player called “Mecci”. Officials used a double “c” because they believed the surname might be Italian, Levinsky said.

Messi eventually made his first appearances in Argentina’s blue and white in two under-20 friendlies in 2004. But doubts remained. At the 2005 Under-20 World Cup in the Netherlands, he started on the bench as Argentina lost their opening match.

“There was strong resistance to calling up a kid who didn’t play in the country,” Levinsky said. “He had to fight against those early suspicions, against being considered a foreigner because he lived in Spain.”

Some supporters later accused him of failing to reproduce his club performances for Argentina and called him “pecho frio” – lacking heart or passion.

A turning point came during a 2011 World Cup qualifier against Colombia. Messi helped Argentina recover from a goal down in difficult conditions.

“He was exhausted, even vomiting, and he ended up winning,” Levinsky said. “It was the first time fans saw him differently.”

The relationship deepened after Messi briefly retired following Argentina’s penalty shootout loss to Chile in the 2016 Copa America final. Argentines publicly urged him to return, recognising that he had taken the team to finals rather than caused its defeats.

Under Lionel Scaloni, Messi became the unquestioned leader of a new generation, captaining Argentina to two Copa America titles and the 2022 World Cup.

His increasingly outspoken leadership prompted comparisons with Diego Maradona, although Levinsky believes the rivalry between Argentina’s two greatest icons is misplaced.

“It is Messi and Maradona,” he said. “They were both geniuses in different eras.”

Unlike Maradona, whose connection with Argentina was immediate, Messi’s relationship with supporters grew gradually.

“Messi was like suddenly finding out you have an 18-year-old son,” Levinsky said. “You have to start loving him without having known he existed. It was a love under construction.”