#2 Argentina vs Hungary: 2005, Friendly
August 16th, 2005, Lisandro Lopez walks towards the touchline and leaves the field, not before patting the eighteen-year-old who was replacing him on the back. The eighteen-year-old, wearing the number eighteen just happened to be the player that would go on to dominate football in the near future. Lionel Messi walked on, making his debut for the Argentina national team, having won the U-20 World Cup less than two months before.
The rival was Hungary, the same team that Diego Maradona had made his debut against back in 1977 and with Jose Pekerman’s Argentina leading 2-1, it seemed the perfect moment to bring on the starlet.
(Video Courtesy: Adnan Hassan Ibrahim YouTube Channel)
The Barcelona player walked on and was immediately thrust into the play, Argentina was on the attack and Bernardi found Messi with a good pass. The then 18-year-old wearing the number 18, easily turned and drove towards the area, and had defender Vanczak right beside him, trying to get the ball off him. The Argentine raised his hands to fend off the challenge and the defender fell like he was hit by a truck, clutching his face.
The referee called it a foul and then walked towards Messi, pulling out his red card and sent the forward walking back, less than three minutes after he walked out for his debut. Later an inconsolable Messi said, “It's an embarrassment, they're not going to call me up anymore," and luckily that hasn’t turned out to be the case but the superstar is yet to win an international trophy!
