The first time I ever watched Lionel Messi play soccer couldn\u2019t have been more anticlimactic.<\/p>\n
Though the player now generally accepted as the greatest in the history of the planet\u2019s most popular sport had already made his first team debut for Barcelona by this time, the setting was far from the bright lights at the then 90,000-seat Camp Nou, Europe\u2019s largest stadium.<\/p>\n
Messi was 18, the second-youngest member of Argentina\u2019s under-20 national team, when he and his teammates met the United States on June 11, 2005, in both countries’ first match of what was then called the FIFA World Youth Championship.<\/p>\n
Arke Stadion in the small Dutch city of Enschede was barely a third full. The kid who\u2019d become the GOAT was on the bench when Chad Barrett \u2014 who\u2019d go on to win one senior cap for the Americans \u2014 scored the eventual winner late in six minutes before halftime. Messi, still mostly unknown except to soccer dorks like me, didn\u2019t do much when he entered in the second half of the game, which I watched on a 13-inch television in my cubicle at ESPN The Magazine\u2019s midtown Manhattan office.<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi in 2006. (Photo by Luis ACOSTA \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Of course, Messi started the rest of the way, finishing as the tournament\u2019s top scorer and MVP as Argentina claimed the title.<\/p>\n A year later, I saw Messi live for the first time; he scored for Bar\u00e7a in a 4-1 friendly win over the New York Red Bulls. As he shyly answered questions in Spanish post-game, floppy brown hair hanging over his eyes, I was struck by how tiny he was. This<\/i> is the guy who some Argentines were already calling Diego Maradona\u2019s heir apparent?<\/p>\n Lionel Messi playing for Barcelona early in his career. (Photo by Tony Quinn\/MLS)<\/span> <\/p>\n Then Messi popped up out of nowhere and stroked the ball past El Tri keeper Guillermo Ochoa, his first of eight goals \u2014 including two in the final win over France \u2014 on the way to his country\u2019s only World Cup title since Maradona\u2019s in 1986.<\/p>\n With that golden trophy in hand, Messi promptly changed his mind about hanging up his boots. I was at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in 2024 when he hoisted the Copa Am\u00e9rica for the second time in three years. In July, I watched him break down in tears on the field as Spain beat Argentina in extra time to wrest the World Cup away from the 39-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n La Roja were worthy champs, yet a wave of sadness engulfed me as I realized that this was probably the last time anyone would ever see Messi wearing that famous baby-blue and white striped No. 10 shirt. Messi was still his side\u2019s best player that day.<\/p>\n Now, as Messi suits up for his send-off match with Argentina on Tuesday in Buenos Aires, I\u2019m filled with gratitude for having been able to cover his career almost from start to finish. Most soccer lovers have never watched him play in person. I don\u2019t take for granted that I\u2019ve seen him so many times I\u2019ve lost count.\u00a0 l’ve been there for the downs \u2014 the shootout loss to the Netherlands in S\u00e3o Paulo in the semifinals of the 2014 World Cup in\u00a0Brazil, another to Chile in the Copa final in New Jersey in 2016, after which an emotional Messi vowed never to play for his country again before changing his mind for the first time \u2014 as well as the once seemingly unreadable heights of 2022 and \u201924.<\/p>\n It\u2019s still surreal to see Messi in MLS and probably will be until he walks away for good, hopefully not before his current contract with Inter Miami expires in 2028.\u00a0 Watching Lionel Messi play soccer \u2014 whether it’s on a screen or in the stands or a press box \u2014 is a privilege that never gets old. There will never be another player like him. Enjoy it as long as you can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BROWSE BY The first time I ever watched Lionel Messi play soccer couldn\u2019t have been more anticlimactic. Though the player now generally accepted as the greatest in the history of the planet\u2019s most popular sport had already made his first team debut for Barcelona by this time, the setting was far from the bright lights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}