When Lionel Messi will step onto the pitch at El Monumental on Tuesday evening, there will not be any words to describe the feeling millions of people will get world wide. Much like his entire playing career, there were and are no words to explain the emotions he envoked and continues to envoke in all of us. But for the player himself, his Argentina national team career has not always been easy.
In this two part series, we will go through Lionel Messi’s journey with the Argentina national team.
Lionel Messi: First heart breaks, 2008 Olympic gold
To say Lionel Messi’s journey with the national team was always a beautiful one would be a lie. While he was an U20 World Cup champion, him jump to José Pekerman’s team was anything but a win at the start.
He was red carded seconds into his national team debut against Hungary and was left on the bench in his first World Cup quarter final match when Argentina were eliminated against Germany.
But somewhere in between the red card against Hungary and the penalty shootout elimination in Berlin, expectations began to continuously rise. In 2007, he started a tournament for the first time for Argentina, a tournament which he would go on to lose three times in a final. Alfio Basile, who had previously coached Diego Maradona, was now coach and started Messi in the tournament. Messi scored a chip goal against Mexico in the semi finals, afterwitch Basile famously told a reporter to close the stadium, after that goal. But a 3-0 loss to Brazil in the final was Messi’s second heart break, his first as a starter.
By the time the 2010 World Cup came around, everyone knew who Lionel Messi was. The best player in the world, a Champions League winner with Barcelona, a league winner and an U20 World Cup winner.
He had fought with FC Barcelona’s management over wanting to join the Argentina team for the 2008 Olympics, a tournament for U23 players. He had continued to show that he wanted to represent Argentina in any way he can. Messi, along with Ángel Di María, Juan Román Riquelme, Sergio Agüero, Javier Mascherano, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Fernando Gaho and the likes would go on to win gold. And Messi would provide the assist to Ángel Di María in the final.
The 2010 World Cup, the detractors appear
Following the gold medal win, Argentina struggled to qualify for the 2010 World Cup with the blame being split among the players and coach Diego Maradona. Needing a last minute goal from Martín Palermo against Peru and Mario Bolatti scoring in the last World Cup qualifying match againat Uruguay, Argentina had qualified for the World Cup.
For possibly the only time in his Argentina national team career, the focus was not solely on Messi. With Javier Mascherano as captain and veteran Juan Sebastián Verón on the team, this wasn’t yet Lionel Messi’s Argentina. And with Diego Maradona as coach, the spotlight was often on the coach.
But after the loss against Germany in South Africa, the pressure and narrative slowly began to change.
Another World Cup elimination against Germany but this time, without scoring a single goal in the tournament. Diego Maradona at the time was coach and comparisons were at an all time high and despite only being 24 years old at the time, some people began turning on Messi. You would often hear people say that the Argentina shirt was too big for him, that he would never equal Maradona or worst of all, he was Catalan, he wasn’t from Argentina.
Two months later, Diego Maradona was gone, in came Sergio Batista as coach and Messi was scoring against the newly crowned World champions Spain at El Monumental, kissing the AFA badge and having everyone in attendance cheer him. Unfortunately, that was short lived.
The 2011 Copa America was held in Argentina and elimination at the hands of eventual champions Uruguay meant the negative narrative was growing. Following the elimination, Alejandro Sabella took over as coach of the national team.
It was rocky at first, with fans at El Monumental jeering Messi in a World Cup qualifying match against Bolivia, it was a tale of the times. That is until a World Cup qualifying match against Colombia.
The 2014 World Cup, change of tides
In 2011, Argentina were losing 1-0 to Colombia in Barranquilla. A goal from Lionel Messi and his good friend Sergio Agüero meant Argentina would win 2-1 and the fortune began to change.
Messi would get his first hat trick with Argentina against Switzerland, fans would chant his name in June 2011 following a tremendous performance against Ecuador and days later, he would score a hat trick against Brazil in a friendly game.
The Argentina national team had Sergio Agüero, Ángel Di María, Gonzalo Higuaín, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Javier Mascherano and Fernando Gago but this was Lionel Messi’s team.
Going into the 2014 World Cup, this was the big test. For the first time since 2006, Messi had a coach that knew how to utilize him and get the best out of him. But winning a World Cup in Brazil was never going to be easy.
A goal in the opening match, a last minute goal against Iran, two goals against Nigeria, one of which was a free kick, an assist in extra time in the Round of 16 against Switzerland, Messi was showing the world that this was his team. The quarter finals came, Messi provided arguably the pass of the tournament but Ángel Di María would get injured and miss the rest of the tournament. Alejandro Sabella and Lionel Messi would have to adjust with missing one of their biggest names.
And even without Di María, Messi did what no other captain since Diego Maradona was able to do. And that was lead Argentina to a World Cup final. But it wasn’t to be. And because Argentina did not win the World Cup, some started to call his Argentina national team career a failure. A serial winner at club level but in his home country, doubted by many.
Alejandro Sabella stepped aside and Gerardo Martino, who previously coached Messi at Barcelona, was named as new coach of the Argentina national team.
Three finals lost in two years, the 2018 World Cup
What came next was a series of continuous heart breaks. A Copa America penalty shootout loss to Chile in 2015 and another one a year later which made it three finals lost in a span of two years.
All of Messi’s magic during those two Copa America tournaments are often forgotten because the final result did not go in Argentina’s favor. To make matters worse, Messi had missed his penalty in 2016, adding more fuel to the fire for his biggest detractors.
If us fans were distraught, one can only imagine what the players and in particular, Messi, was going through. What came was Messi infamously retiring from the national team.
But later that year, Messi would return and he would have a new coach. Edgardo Bauza would manage the team for eight games but it was a new look for Messi, a free kick goal against Colombia and it was as if nothing had changed. The 2018 World Cup qualifiers mirrored that of eight years prior, except Martín Palermo was not going to be the hero, it was Lionel Messi.
Bauza was gone as coach, Jorge Sampaoli, who had won the 2015 Copa America with Chile against Argentina, became coach.
Going into the final World Cup qualifying match away against Ecuador, it was Ecuador who took the lead less than one minute into the match. But not for the first time in his career, Lionel Messi put the team on his back and scored a hat trick. A 3-1 win, celebrations and Argentina had qualified for the World Cup.
Once more, just like in 2010, it was a World Cup filled with all kinds of emotions. There was apparently a problem between Jorge Sampaoli and his coaching staff, Sampaoli constantly made changes to the starting eleven and what appears to have been problems between the coach and the players.
On the pitch for Messi, he missed a penalty kick in the opening game against Iceland, he infamously had his hand on forehead during the national anthems prior to a 3-0 loss against eventual finalists Croatia and it all came down to the last group stage match against Nigeria.
Lionel Messi had yet to score at that World Cup but a cross by Éver Banega and a sublime touch by Messi meant it was 1-0 for Jorge Sampaoli’s team. Marcos Rojo would eventually score the winner and Argentina were through to the Round of 16 against France.
In what was probably the match of the tournament, it wasn’t to be for Argentina. Now in his early 30s, it looked like Lionel Messi’s dream of winning the World Cup would be just that, a dream.
While the narrative was that Messi’s time with the national team might be coming to an end and new faces would be needed, the big turning point was Lionel Scaloni becoming coach of the Argentina national team.
Messi now had nine different coaches in 12 years with the Argentina national team. And while everyone tried to bring the best out of Messi, it was his former team mate at the 2006 World Cup that was able to make that difference. Scsloni along with his coaching staff were able to convince Messi of continuing to play with the national team and the first tournament was the 2019 Copa America held in Brazil.
This concludes the first part of this two part series. Part two to be posted after Lionel Messi’s retirement match.
