Lionel Messi, Argentina

Footsteps of Lionel Messi’s debut at the 2006 World Cup

Who doesn’t know Lionel Messi ? This Argentinian football star is the best player in the world. Many achievements both at the individual level, club, and the Argentine national team .

Seven Ballon d’or titles is one proof of the greatness of Lionel Messi in the world of football. But behind the flashy Messi award, there is one title that has not been conquered, namely the World Cup.

Messi is currently Argentina’s all-time top scorer with 86 goals. However, Messi is still under Gabriel Batistuta in terms of scoring goals at the World Cup.

All things related to the World Cup as if Messi doesn’t want to be conquered. The climax at the 2014 World Cup, Messi had to be patient again when he lost in the top party against Germany.

Although all things related to the World Cup are difficult for Messi to achieve, in fact there are interesting facts when you look at Messi’s debut at the World Cup. How is the story of Messi’s debut at the World Cup? Here’s the story.

Debuting at the Age of 18

Messi debuted the World Cup tournament in 2006. At that time Germany was given the mandate as host.

Messi who made his debut on August 17, 2005. Less than a year, Messi was called up to strengthen the Argentine national team at the 2006 World Cup.

At that time Messi was 18 years old and became one of the youngest debutants of the World Cup. In the Argentine national team, Messi has to compete for a place with several big names such as Pablo Aimar, Carlos Tevez to Javier Saviola.

Scored One Goal and One Assist

Argentina at that time joined in Group C with Ivory Coast, Serbia-Montenegro and the Netherlands. Messi did not play in Argentina’s inaugural match against Ivory Coast.

In the second match, Messi just made his World Cup debut from the bench against Serbia-Montenegro. Messi just entered in the 74th minute replacing Maxi Rodriguez.

But it only took four minutes for Messi to prove his quality. Messi immediately contributed assists for Argentina in the 78th minute.

Not satisfied with assists, Messi apparently also scored in his first game at the World Cup. Precisely in the 88th minute Messi scored a goal through a flick of his right foot. The goal was the closing goal for Argentina’s 6-0 win over Serbia-Montenegro.

Eliminated Germany

Germany seems to be a country that always tackles Messi’s achievements in the World Cup. It turns out that the 2014 World Cup Final is not the first time Messi has been beaten by Germany.

At Messi’s World Cup debut, Germany was also the actor of Argentina’s failure to go further. At that time Argentina met Germany in the last eight.

Status as the host, Germany managed to eliminate Messi’s hopes of winning the World Cup on his debut. At that time Argentina lost on penalties 5-3 after a 1-1 draw.

Even more painful is the fact that Messi was not taken down at all by coach Jose Nestor Pekerman. He can only mourn the loss of Argentina from the bench.