Notes

Lionel Messi's international career. a topic that is commonly misrepresented and unfairly branded. Is Messi really an international fraud? Well, im going to let you decide that, after i lay out all of the facts and figures of his argentina career. Let me give you a quick hint before we begin, he's pretty fucking good.

Lets go all the way back to 2003, where a very young leo had to make a decision between representing spain or argentina, he was eligible for both. he chose argentina. of course. his childhood dream was to play for his country. just think that if he had chosen spain he would have probably won the world cup abput 15 times already and now im going to cry in the corner.

Messi's first tournament with argentina was the 2005 fifa world youth championship in the netherlands when he was only 17. long story short, he racked up 6 goals, one assist, won the best player award, top goalscorer award and left as a champion. wait i thought he'd never won a trophy. oh yeah, he was also already being compared to maradona in the argentinian media. the guy had just turned 18, incredible.

his talent was undisgusiable and his first team callup was inevitable. the day finally arrived, a friendly against hungary in august of 2005. messi came on in the 63rd minute and was sent off in the 65th minute after being dragged back by a defender. nice to see that nothings changed.

a year later, and his first senior tournmanet was here. the 2006 world cup. the 18 year old messi made the squad and in only the second game, messi came on, scored and assisted, making him not only the youngest argentian to ever play at a world cup but also the 6th youngest world cup goalscorer ever. messi was a rotational player in this tournament and didnt see the pitch in argentina's quarter final loss to germany. then manager Pekerman was rinsed back home in argentina for not playing him, as argentinian supporters realised they had a special talent on their hands.#

the following year, messi experienced his first copa america. getting 2 goals and 2 assists on his way to the final despite still playing limited minutes, messi managed to score the goal of the tournament against mexico and even though brazil beat argentina 3-0 in the final, messi was named young player of the tournament. not too shabby for a 20 year old.

no time to rest though, because next summer the olympics came around. 2 goals and 3 assists in 5 games for lionel messi, and he left as the most outstanding player of the tournament with a gold medal around his neck. Hang on a second though, i was told that this guy was an international failure? he just won his country a gold medal for fucks sake.

lets just take a pause for a second and appreciate that at 21 years old, messi had a youth world championship and a gold medal already in the bag as well as consistently being recognised as his nations best player. 21 years old.

now the next few years were slightly more challenging. the argentinian FA decided to hire a slightly crazy old guy as their manager - oh wait, that was diego maradona. a controversial decision as maradona's managerial experience was thin. the 2010 world cup was in sight but argentina were struggling to even qualify. maradona's system wasn't working and so maradona famously visited messi in barcelona to request his tactical input. messi was 22 years old, wasnt even the captain but was already basically coaching the team. this is something that would happen again many times in the future. the 2010 world cup was dissapointing for both messi and argentina as they were beaten in the quarter finals by germany. messi was still put into the top 10 performers of the tournament by fifa though, even though his incredible brilliance was negated by the clear lack of tactical planning.

the 2011 copa america followed a similar pattern. even with a different manager argentina were without a plan. argentinian fans even booed lionel messi out of frustration, as though they expected him to single handedly win them the tournament. those were the standards that messi commanded even from such a young age.