When Lionel Messi makes his final appearance for Argentina against Benin on Tuesday at Buenos Aires’ Monumental stadium, it will mark the end of an international career that has lasted more than two decades.It will also bring the curtain down on a relationship that took time to develop. Argentina’s football authorities once struggled even to identify the teenage Messi, who was developing his career far from home. Over the years, he went from being viewed with suspicion to becoming the leader of the national team and one of the most important figures in Argentine football.“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, who wrote “Messi and Everything Else”, told news agency Reuters.Messi moved to Barcelona as a teenager. While Spain tried to convince him to play for them, Argentina had limited knowledge of the youngster from Rosario.At the 2003 Under-17 World Cup in Finland, Spain beat Argentina 3-2 after extra time in the semi-finals. According to Levinsky, Cesc Fabregas, who scored twice in the match and was Messi’s teammate at Barcelona’s La Masia academy, told Argentine delegates after the game: “You lost to us because we’ve got your best player at Barcelona and he’s a genius.”Argentina youth coach Hugo Tocalli recalled a similar conversation. Speaking at the Ole Summit last month, he said Spain’s head chef told him Argentina needed “a kid who plays in Barcelona” to win the tournament.The Argentine Football Association (AFA) then had to find the teenager who was already making an impression in Spain.AFA employee Omar Souto tracked down the Messi family through a Rosario telephone directory, but when he made contact, he asked for “Leonardo”.“His name isn’t Leonardo, it’s Lionel,” Souto was told, according to the documentary “Messi: The Forgotten Tape”.Even Messi’s name caused confusion in the paperwork. Levinsky said the AFA sent Barcelona a fax asking about a player called “Mecci”, spelling the surname with a double “c” because officials believed he might be Italian.A love under constructionMessi eventually played two under-20 friendlies for Argentina in 2004, making his first appearances in the blue and white shirt. But doubts about him remained.At the 2005 Under-20 World Cup in the Netherlands, Messi started on the bench as Argentina lost their opening game.“There was strong resistance to calling up a kid who didn’t play in the country,” Levinsky said, as quoted by Reuters. “He had to fight against those early suspicions, against being considered a foreigner because he lived in Spain.”Messi was later criticised for not producing the same level of football for Argentina that he did for Barcelona. Some fans even labelled him “pecho frio”, suggesting he lacked heart or fire.A World Cup qualifier against Colombia in 2011 became an important moment in changing that perception. 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 grew stronger after Messi briefly retired from international football following Argentina’s penalty shootout defeat by Chile in the 2016 Copa America final. Instead of blaming him, Argentine fans publicly urged him to return.“People realised he was not responsible for the defeats. He was the one getting them to finals,” Levinsky added.Under Lionel Scaloni, Messi became the clear leader of a new generation of Argentine players. He guided the team to two Copa America titles and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.As Messi became a more vocal captain, comparisons with Diego Maradona became inevitable. But Levinsky believes the debate over who was Argentina’s greater player misses the bigger picture.“It is Messi and Maradona,” he added. “They were both geniuses in different eras.”“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.”
