"You lost to us because we've got your best player at Barcelona and he's a genius." Cesc Fabregas said that to Argentine delegates after Spain knocked them out of the 2003 Under-17 World Cup. Argentina's own officials barely knew the kid's name.
That's where this story starts. Not with trophies. Not with the 2022 World Cup. It starts with an AFA employee hunting through a Rosario phone directory in Spain, asking for a boy called "Leonardo." The family had to correct him: "His name isn't Leonardo, it's Lionel." The AFA then faxed Barcelona asking about a player called "Mecci" — double 'c' — because they assumed he might be Italian.
On Tuesday, that same player makes his final appearance for Argentina against Benin at the Monumental in Buenos Aires. More than two decades. Three Copa America titles. A World Cup. And a relationship that, for a long stretch, was more complicated than the highlights reel suggests.
The years nobody wanted him
Messi started on the bench at the 2005 Under-20 World Cup in the Netherlands after Argentina lost their opener. There was, according to journalist and author Sergio Levinsky, "strong resistance to calling up a kid who didn't play in the country." Fans labelled him pecho frio — cold-hearted, lacking fire. The criticism stung for years.
The shift came slowly. A qualifier against Colombia in 2011 — Messi exhausted, reportedly vomiting on the pitch, still dragging Argentina to a win — is where Levinsky marks the first real change in how supporters saw him. Then came the 2016 Copa America final penalty shootout defeat to Chile. Messi briefly retired. Instead of piling on, Argentines begged him to come back.
"People realised he was not responsible for the defeats," Levinsky said. "He was the one getting them to finals."
What Scaloni unlocked
Under Lionel Scaloni, everything crystallised. Two Copa Americas and the 2022 World Cup later, Messi became the undisputed leader of a generation — more vocal, more assertive, drawing comparisons with Maradona that Levinsky thinks miss the point entirely. "It is Messi and Maradona," he said. "They were both geniuses in different eras."
The Maradona debate will outlive everyone involved in it. What's harder to argue with is the arc of what Messi built with Argentina — not handed to him, not immediate, not easy.
Levinsky's line captures it better than any trophy count: "Messi was like suddenly finding out you have an 18-year-old son. You have to start loving him without having known he existed. It was a love under construction."
Tuesday night at the Monumental, that construction is complete.
