Two decades ago, the renowned striker Lionel Messi took a colossal leap in his career when he joined Barcelona’s first team. From that moment on, he showcased the qualities of a genius and went on to achieve countless admirable successes.
Constantly Changing Locker Rooms Lionel Messi was brought into Barcelona from Newell’s Old Boys in 2000, and after a few years of silent accumulation, he reached his “explosive point”. In the 2003/04 season, the young talent from Argentina played for Juvenil B, Juvenil A (part of Barcelona’s youth team system), Barca C, Barca B, and the first team of Barca. That means that within one year, he had moved to five different locker rooms at the club level. The actual number of locker rooms would be six if we consider that this player born in 1987 also played two games for the U20 Argentina team. Talent Knows No Age Messi started the historic 2003/04 season on August 8, 2003. He played in the match between Juvenil B and Dutch representative Feyenoord at the Toyota U17 Club World Cup. On that day, the former PSG striker played the full 90 minutes. He made an assist to help Franck Songoo score and Juvenil B beat their opponents with a score of 3-1. Just over a month after that memorable match, Messi was “promoted” to play for Juvenil A after winning the Toyota U17 Best Player award. This happened on September 14 in the second round of the Spanish youth league. This time, Messi continued to have a dream debut as he helped Juvenil A crush Hercules 3-0. On October 26, Messi not only scored his first goal for Juvenil A but also scored four more goals (in minutes 7, 55, 65, and 90) to help his team destroy Gimnastic de Tarragona with a score of 7-0. Alongside Juvenil A, Messi scored a total of 18 goals in just 11 games.
Meeting HLV Mourinho in an unofficial debut During the break for international matches at the end of 2003, when La Liga was temporarily suspended, Messi and a few young Barca players were called up by Frank Rijkaard to train with the first team. Commenting on the performance of the youngsters, French midfielder Ludovic Giuly admitted: “He destroyed all of us. To avoid being turned into clowns, the first-team players didn’t hesitate to commit fouls. But Messi kept getting up and playing on.” “Messi had the ability to beat up to four players and scored a goal. He was so outstanding that even the regular centre-back pairing of Barca felt tense. Messi is indeed from an extraterrestrial planet, not an ordinary human being.” As Ludovic Giuly shared, Messi played so well that he was kept by Coach Rijkaard in the first team. Messi’s first game for the Barca first team was actually just a friendly match and not an official one. On November 16, 2003, Messi played against Porto, coached by Jose Mourinho, who had just won the Champions League. Although Barca lost 0-2 to the Portuguese team, Messi, who was 16 years, four months and 23 days old, still left a strong mark. Since coming on in the 75th minute, he created two chances and had one shot on target. The loss to Porto was only Messi’s second defeat of the 2003/04 season. Earlier, he had lost to Real’s youth team in September.
Returning to the youth teams, after a friendly match with Porto, Messi had to wait until February 2004 to play for Barca’s first team again. During this waiting period, the small player with exceptional left foot played an additional 5 matches for Juvenil A and 9 matches for Barca C. Thanks to Messi’s significant contributions, Barca C was promoted in December 2003. During the temporary break of La Liga, Messi played another friendly match for Barca. He appeared for 45 minutes, didn’t score or assist, and Barca beat the Ukrainian representative 3-2. In March 2004, Messi played in Barca B’s match against Mataro in round 28. That day, Barca B defeated their opponents with a minimal score, and Messi didn’t create or score any goals himself. Instead, he received his first yellow card of the season.
In just 18 minutes, Messi managed to score his second poker in the 2003/04 season, during a match between Juvenil A and Sevilla. This game was part of the U19 Spanish Cup’s Round of 16.
It is worth noting that the prodigy of Barca needed only 18 minutes to score four times (from minute 52 to 70) against the opponent. Immediately after the match, the official website of Barca published an article about Messi titled “An Unparalleled Performance”. Additionally, they shared a link to a YouTube video of Messi’s poker goal-scoring feat in the game.
Speaking about this match, Messi recalls: “We really struggled in the first half. In the second half, Sevilla seemed to tire out and I took advantage of that to score. After that, the goals just kept coming naturally.” Making his debut for the first team Instead of dedicating himself to Barcelona in June and July, Messi participated in two friendly matches with the Argentina U20 national team. He contributed one goal and two assists in the U20 Argentina’s victory over U20 Paraguay 8-0, before adding two more goals and an assist to help his team crush U20 Uruguay 4-1. Three months later, Messi had his first official match for the Barca first team. In the clash between Barca and their neighbors Espanyol in round 7 of La Liga 2004/05, Messi came on as a substitute for Deco in the 82nd minute. That day, the future owner of eight Ballon d’Or awards was only 17 years, three months, and 22 days old, and wore the rather unfamiliar number 30 jersey.