Lionel Messi will lead Argentina to back-to-back World Cup finals as the defending champions take on Spain on Sunday, July 19 (July 20, 12:30 am IST). But did you know that the Argentina legend was almost about to represent Spain in international football?
Lionel Messi has secured his place in Argentina's history as one of the greatest players to every play football. It is poetic that in a few hours, he will represent Argentina as captain in the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final against Spain, a country he almost played for!
The 39-year-old Argentina is also a legend of Spanish football, having played for Barcelona for over two decades. He moved to Spain when he was 13 to join the club's academy La Masia and lived in the country until August 2021 after which he made the big move to Paris Saint-Germain.
Soon after Lionel Messi joined La Masia, youth coach Alex Garcia called up Spain’s youth coach Ginés Meléndez and said, "There’s a kid here, an Argentine, but they (Argentina) don’t call him up. Maybe there’s a possibility he might want to play for Spain."
For the youth coach, the youngster was the missing piece in the puzzle. Spanish coaches made plans to convince Messi to get him to play for Spain along with his teammates from Barcelona, but the young boy always wanted to represent Argentina.
Despite his exceptional talent that impressed everyone in Spain, Argentina was not really aware of the young talent until a VHS tape changed it all. When the then Argentina coach, Marcelo Bielsa visited Barcelona in 2002, Messi's representative, Horacio Gaggiolo got a VHS tape of the player's highlights to show it to the Argentine team.
In an interview, he had said, "That was Jorge's [Messi's father] idea. He told me, 'Horacio, the Argentine national team is coming to Barcelona, can you get them some footage of Leo?' Leo wasn't well known in Argentina. We had a video that I was given by Barça with some plays."
Eventually, Argentina assistant coach Claudio Vivas, who was hesitant to judge a player based on a tape, watched the footage with Marcelo and both of them were stunned. Bielsa thought the footage was was playing at a faster feed and Claudio had to confirm that it was indeed playing at normal speed.
The VHS tape eventually made way to Argentina U-17’s coach, Hugo Tocalli months before the Under-17 World Cup. However, the coach decided not to call up the young star and Argentina lost to Spain 2-3 in the semi-finals.
In a documentary, Hugo recalled how Spain's chef had shamed him for not including Messi in the squad. "We finished eating. Spain's team was next to us. Their chef comes out...and he says: 'Tocalli, if you would've brought the kid from Barcelona, you would've been champions with the team you have.' That hit me hard, like someone had stabbed me with a dagger".
Hugo Tocalli went all out to make Messi play for Argentina since Spain was trying very hard to get him on their side. He asked theArgentinian Football Association (AFA) to make arrangements for a friendly as quickly as possible so that the player could make his debut and announce his commitment to the national team.
Finally, Lionel Messi made his Argentina debut in the Under-20 friendly against Paraguay on June 29, 2026 at the Argentinos Juniors’ stadium. His senior international debut came on August 17, 2005 against Hungary.
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