the memory of the improvised archer who suffered the first pranks of the Flea

April 9, 1994 is not just any date for Lionel Andres Messi. Leo may not remember, but this Tuesday marks the 30th anniversary of first “official” goal of the Flea. She did it by playing Newell’s and before Paul VI Athenaeum. The result was 6-0 and that day the world champion in Qatar 2022 he scored four goals.

“That afternoon the goalkeeper couldn’t save and I was sent away. My dad and my mom say that when he was little he saved a lot. So yes: I am the first goalkeeper that Messi scored a goal against“, he says smilingly Federico Guillermo Canothe boy who signed the form with number 1 of Ateneo Pablo VI on April 9, 1994.

The record you accessed Clarion It is jealously guarded by the authorities of the Rosarina League. “Our archives are enormous. Imagine that we play 25,000 games per year and each one has a score sheet. But we separate Leo’s all because one day they may be part of a museum or they may even remain as a memory for his family.”says the president of the Rosarina Football Association, Mario Giammaría.

The sheet of debut of Messi in 1994 preserves the details and good handwriting of the delegates of Newell’s and of Paul VI. Leo is announced in eighth place and with card number 99,231. La Pulga signed the form as Lionel, in capital letters, and scored his first goal poker. The duel began at 4 p.m. and two 15-minute halves were played. The referee who signaled a goal by Leo for the first time was Sergio Pepio.

Time passed and 30 years have passed since that day where it all began. Messi’s story is known to the extreme. Even the goals he scored in the Newell’s Children’s League, between 1994 and 1999: 234 goals in 176 gamesaccording to an investigation by journalist Carlos Durhand, from the newspaper The capital.

But, What happened to the life of Federico Guillermo Cano, the first of the goalkeepers defeated by Messi?

“That day I made a save because our goalkeeper had a fever and they sent him home. The truth is, I only have the memory that in a couple of games I went to the goal because I liked it and in training I put on the gloves. My mother, Alvia, and my father, Benito, say that they remember everything. “One of my brothers claims that Messi scored all my goals from outside the area.”Cano tells her Clarion.

The court of Paul VI Athenaeum, where Messi scored his first goals, no longer exists: the club moved to Boulevard Seguí y Garzón. As in almost all large cities in Argentina, cement and technology were destroying the pastures. Now, in the place where Leo celebrated for the first time, the building of the Catholic University of Rosario. “Here was Baby’s court and opposite, where the supermarket is, was 11’s”says Cano from the corner of Avenida Pellegrini and Crespo.

“Having played against Messi is an honor. Newell’s Category 87 was impressive. They told him ‘Machine’. It was my turn to mark Leo because I played almost all the Inferiors as a left back. I must have kicked him some. The one that my family never forgets is the kick I gave to Fideo Di María, one afternoon when we played against Rosario Central. He is in the 1988 category, but since he was so good they raised him to the 87. My old man says I made him fly two meters through the air.”, recalls Cano. And clarifies: “Both Leo and Ángel were unstoppable at the age of 7”.

Cano’s football career was frustrated by a motorcycle accident: he spent two years recovering from a severe femur fracture. “I focused on finishing high school and then I started working”he states.

He worked for eight years in a motorcycle factory and then went to a cereal factory that would mark him. “We suffered an explosion and a colleague died”, explains Cano. The incident occurred in December 2017 at the facilities of the former cereal company. Praised from the city of Puerto General San Martín, on the outskirts of Rosario. Currently, the goalkeeper who suffered Messi’s first official goal drives a forklift for loading and unloading in the company. Sika.

Over time and through one of his sons, Ciro, 8 years old, Cano returned to soccer. “I am lending a hand as an assistant in the 2015 category. Next year I would like to take the teacher course”Matías and Morena’s father also dreams.

Matias Greco He is another of the boys who played that inaugural match in 1994: he moved as a left midfielder in Pablo VI and in many passages he had to mark Messi, who was already playing lying down on the right. “I have registered in my head all the goals that Messi scored against us. We played twice a year, plus the summer tournaments. The Newell’s A of the 1987 category marked an era in Rosario. From what I remember from those years, the only team that could get a draw from time to time was Tiro Suizo. You entered the field knowing that you were going to lose by a landslide. They played you without mercy and scored all the goals they could.”remembers Greco, who is currently the physical trainer of Soharof the First Division of Omanthe oldest independent state in the Arab world.

And adds: “Leo didn’t like losing anything. Once he missed a penalty against us and I still have the horny face he made on me. Later, I was close to sharing a team with him in 1997, when we were invited to represent the Rosario National Team in a tournament in the United States. But Leo couldn’t go due to economic reasons.”.

Agustín Luli Ruani He ran alongside Messi in that April 1994 debut. “Leo and I went to the same school for a couple of years and then we played a lot at Newell’s. We shared a lot of things. We even celebrated some birthdays together because we were only six days apart.”, severes Ruani from Rosario. And wide: “That Leo scored four goals seemed natural to us. I thought that the same thing happened in other clubs with other kids. It’s only when you grow up that you begin to appreciate what you already were when you were 6 years old.”.

Ruani, who works at the Municipal Autodrome, was a fundamental part of ‘The Machine’ that caused a sensation in the Rosario pastures. “There was an internal rule in which you couldn’t score more than 6 or 7 goals. So, a lot of games ended early because we reached those goals in the first half”account.

An authorized voice to talk about the youthful Messi is Enrique DominguezSebastián’s father, who directed Leo in Leprosy in 1998. “I remember that I was about to stop working at Newell’s because I wanted to accompany my children more in their professions. I had already decided. But one afternoon in November or December Sergio Almirón called me to tell me that he was going to give me the Leo category. I had to stay one more year to direct it”assures Quique.

And continues: “Newell’s 87 category had a great team, but there was one kid who played 100 times more than everyone: Messi. It made a tremendous difference in coordination and ball handling. His simplicity and his respect for everyone were striking. I never challenged him. And I can’t boast of having taught him anything because he was touched by the magic wand. “When I was little I already knew everything.”.

The stories come out Quiquewho saw different kids with crack cocaine pass before his eyes in the Lower Newell’s, like Gustavo Rhodes y Maximiliano Rodríguez. “The people who went to see the minor categories stayed to see Messi. Maybe they lasted four hours to see it. It was a pleasure”says Dominguez. And he closes pure emotion: “No one gets anywhere in life alone. And Leo was lucky to have coaches who protected him. I admit having protected Leo’s dream”.

So 30 years have passed since Messi’s first “official” goal at Newell’s. Thousands would come later, of different values, with different shirts and different goalkeepers. But there is Federico Guillermo Cano, that boy who, due to fate, made a save that afternoon of La Pulga’s debut on Pablo VI’s court. AND He has a story trapped in his hands that is impossible to match.: After all, he is and will always be the first goalkeeper against whom Lionel Andrés Messi scored a goal.