Messi farewell closes a long, hard-won love story with Argentina

When Lionel Messi makes his final appearance for Argentina on Tuesday, it will bring to an end a journey that began with the country's football authorities not even knowing his name and evolved into one of the most enduring relationships in sporting history.

The farewell against Benin at Buenos Aires' Monumental stadium ends an international career spanning more than two decades, which began with Argentina scrambling to identify a teenage prodigy developing far from home.

"He went through so many moments that they're really very different eras. At first he suffered enormously with the national team. He truly endured it," Argentine journalist and author Sergio Levinsky, who wrote "Messi and Everything Else", told Reuters.

Messi moved to Barcelona as a teenager and, while Spain tried to persuade him to represent them, his own country barely knew he existed.

At the 2003 Under-17 World Cup in Finland, Spain beat Argentina 3-2 after extra time in the semi-finals.

According to Levinsky, a young Cesc Fabregas, who scored twice and was Messi's teammate at Barcelona's La Masia academy, told Argentine delegates afterwards: "You lost to us because we've got your best player at Barcelona and he's a genius."

Argentina youth coach Hugo Tocalli recalled a similar encounter. He said at the Ole Summit last month that Spain's head chef told him Argentina needed "a kid who plays in Barcelona" to win the tournament.

Finding the boy from Rosario proved difficult.

Argentine Football Association (AFA) employee Omar Souto tracked down the Messi family in Spain through a Rosario telephone directory, only to ask for "Leonardo".

"His name isn't Leonardo, it's Lionel," Souto was told, according to the documentary "Messi: The Forgotten Tape".

The confusion even extended to the paperwork.

The AFA sent Barcelona a fax asking about a player called "Mecci," spelling the surname with a double "c" because officials believed he might be Italian, Levinsky said.

A love under construction

After those complications, Messi played two under-20 friendlies for Argentina in 2004, his first appearances in the blue and white stripes.

Yet scepticism lingered.

At the 2005 Under-20 World Cup in the Netherlands, Messi began on the bench as Argentina lost their opening game.

"There was strong resistance to calling up a kid who didn't play in the country," Levinsky said. "He had to fight against those early suspicions, against being considered a foreigner because he lived in Spain."

He was later criticised for failing to reproduce his club form and labelled "pecho frio", lacking heart or fire, by some fans.

A World Cup qualifier against Colombia in 2011 began to change that perception, as Messi helped Argentina rally from a goal down to win in difficult conditions.

"He was exhausted, even vomiting, and he ended up winning," Levinsky said. "It was the first time fans saw him differently."

The bond strengthened when Messi briefly retired after Argentina's penalty shootout defeat by Chile in the 2016 Copa America final. Rather than blame him, Argentines pleaded publicly for him to return.

"People realised he was not responsible for the defeats. He was the one getting them to finals," Levinsky added.

Under Lionel Scaloni, Messi became the undisputed leader of a new generation, guiding Argentina to two Copa America titles and the 2022 World Cup.

His evolution into a more outspoken captain drew comparisons with Diego Maradona, but Levinsky said the usual debate between Argentina's two biggest icons missed the point.

"It is Messi and Maradona," he added. "They were both geniuses in different eras."

For Levinsky, Argentina's affection for Messi was not as immediate as it was for Maradona. It developed around a player whose upbringing and career unfolded largely abroad but who grew closer to supporters over time.

"Messi was like suddenly finding out you have an 18-year-old son," Levinsky said. "You have to start loving him without having known he existed. It was a love under construction."

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