What is your memory of that night in La Paternal?

While he spends hours with his teammates from the Argentine national team who tonight will face Peru in Miami in a match on the third date of the group stage of the Copa América that he will miss due to muscle discomfort, Lionel Messi celebrates this Saturday 20 years since his first match with the Albiceleste shirt: It was June 29, 2004. That day, at the Argentinos Juniors stadium, he played a few minutes and scored a goal in an 8-0 victory for the U-20 team led by Hugo Tocalli against Paraguay.

The anniversary was the reason for a tribute made by Argentinos Juniors on their social media accounts. “Lio Messi and Diego Armando Maradona, a place where the love of football is and will be unique”says the message, which is accompanied by a brief interview conducted by journalist Victor Tujschinaider with Messi in the United States on the occasion of this significant day.

“I didn’t remember the exact date, but I keep it in mind, it is a very special memory. It was against Paraguay, we ended up winning 8-0 and I scored a goal. I didn’t go back to the Argentinos court again after that game, but it is a special place because that’s where my path with the national team began.”recalled the Inter Miami footballer.

That cold night at La Paternal, Messi took the field after halftime, when the national team had already won 4-0: he replaced Ezequiel Lavezzi. And he sealed his debut with a great goal: 36 minutes into the matchreceived the ball in the central circle, accelerated, got rid of two rivals, entered the area, left the goalkeeper in his path and gently touched the net.

At that time, the 17-year-old kid was dazzling in Barcelona and The Royal Spanish Football Federation had already shown its intention to call him up to play with the U-17 of that country.. In an intelligent move by Julio Humberto Grondona, the Argentine Football Association organized the friendly against Paraguay to prevent La Roja from keeping the talented Rosario player.

“The Spanish had not summoned Leo, but they wanted to go look for him. I can assure you that he did not want to play for Spain because he wanted to play for Argentina,” Tocalli said in dialogue with Clarín in 2015. “They had told us a lot about Leo, I liked him and I had already seen him in a very short video. We saw that it was something special, that’s why we wanted it.”added the coach.

That under-20 team had among its ranks some footballers who later accompanied Messi in the senior team, such as Lavezzi, Pablo Zabaleta and Ezequiel Garay. The duel against the Paraguayans was easily resolved in the first half. Before those initial 45 minutes were over, Tocalli asked teacher Gerardo Salorio to warm up Messi, who took the field wearing the number 17 shirt after the break.

“I asked him to play freely and where he felt comfortable, like in Barcelona. He barely touched the first ball and started, he was already enthusiastic. After the game, he walked with a happy face in the locker room”, recalled the technical director, champion of the 2007 Canada Youth World Cup.

A little over a year later, Leo made his official presentation in the senior team, led by Joseph Pekerman, in a duel against Hungary in which he was sent off before completing one minute on the field. That was the first of the 184 games he played with the national team, in which he scored 108 goals.