José Pekerman spoke about Lionel Messi’s first youth match with the Argentina national team.
Pekerman won three FIFA U20 World Cup’s with the Argentina national team, a record which he holds. The Argentine went on to coach the senior Argentina national team and was the coach which gave Lionel Messi his first ever match with the senior team.
Lionel Messi would play his first match with the U20 national team in 2004 against Paraguay. Speaking in an interview at Olé Summit 2025, Pekerman spoke about how Lionel Messi first played with the youth team. Here is what he had to say:
“In Spain, we had heard about Lionel from an Under-17 tournament in Finland. The Spanish coaching staff told us that if they had had that ‘kid’, they would have won it.
“But since the paperwork was already in place for him to play in the Under-20 World Cup for Spain, which would have blocked him, we had to hurry. Tocalli told me he had the team ready for the South American Under-20 Championship, which was starting in a month.”
“I spoke to the president, told him about it, said he wanted to come, and that we had to send the call-up to Barcelona.
“I told Tocalli that I was impressed, that he was the player of the future. I couldn’t be wrong, he was the new star of Argentine football a blessing.
“I told him (Tocalli) that I didn’t want him to play if it wasn’t necessary, just to play a friendly match and sign the form to send to FIFA. And that was it, no more Spain.
“I spoke with Julio (Grondona) to ask him to give Messi his debut, but I set one condition: the opponent could be anyone, I didn’t care; the match had to be played at Argentinos’ stadium. If Diego had played there…”
