FIFA World Cup™ Germany 2006 player's profile

Lionel Messi became the toast of Argentina when, just days after his 18th birthday, he inspired his country's U-20 side to a fifth world title with a series of masterful displays at the FIFA World Youth Championship Netherlands 2005.
Such was the impression made by the prodigious midfielder that in addition to taking home a gold medal he also picked up the adidas Golden Shoe award as top scorer, and the adidas Golden Ball as best player. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™, the 18-year-old will be hoping to pick up an even more prestigious accolade – the Gillette Best Young Player Award.

"Although he's already a great player, Lionel needs to take things slowly. What he did in this tournament was fantastic, but in order to keep developing his game and improving, he needs to continue along the same lines," said his Argentina U-20 coach Francisco Ferraro. 'Messimania' has also broken out back in Argentina with many supporters and analysts already comparing him to the young Diego Maradona.

With his extraordinary vision, darting runs and impeccable technical skills, Messi strides about midfield like it is his natural habitat, engineering openings where none appear to exist. Endowed with an explosive turn of pace and the ability to majestically dribble his way through the sturdiest of rearguards, he is a constant threat to opposing defences, who seem incapable of containing him.

But the left-footed Messi is a lot more than just an orchestrator of play and a neat passer; he has also got a keen eye for goal. His six-goal tally in the Netherlands, in particular the exquisite strike that opened the scoring in the semi-final against Brazil, have marked him out as a formidable marksman in his own right.

Messi was only 13 when his family moved from Argentina to Spain to escape the economic crisis then ravaging the South American country. After settling in Barcelona, the talented youngster was invited to trials at the Camp Nou, where the youth coach Carles Rexach immediately spotted a star in the making. "I snapped him up there and then. In fact, as a symbolic gesture, I got him to sign for FC Barcelona on the back of a serviette," Rexach later recalled.

However, at only 1.40m, the diminutive Messi was extremely small and slight for his age, and so the club also undertook to take care of the medical treatment needed to stimulate the player's dormant growth hormones.

Three years on, the Argentine made his debut in the Spanish top flight at the age of 16, and then on 1 May 2005 he became the youngest league scorer in Barcelona's history when, at just 17 years, ten months and seven days, he audaciously chipped the Catalans' winner against Albacete. Today, the player they call El Pulga (The Flea) is a key member of a star-studded Barcelona side that finished the 2005-06 season as Spanish league champions and winners of the UEFA Champions League.

Officials at the Spanish Football Federation were not slow either when it came to recognising Messi's huge potential, offering him the chance to represent his adopted country at youth level. However, the player's Argentine roots ran deep and he politely declined in the hope that one day he would get his chance with the Albiceleste.

In the end coach Jose Pekerman decided to call the prodigious teenager up the senior squad, not because of public pressure, but simply in recognition of the maturity and quality of his game. However, his full debut with the senior team, against Hungary in August 2005, was far from ideal, with Messi being shown a straight red card for raising an arm in a tackle less than a minute after coming off the bench.

Two weeks later he would play the final ten minutes of his country’s qualifying defeat by Paraguay in Asuncion, and then start his first game for the Albiceleste in another Germany 2006 qualifier against Peru on 9 September at the Monumental. He was hailed as his team’s best player by the local media after his side’s 2-0 win, but would have to wait until 1 March this year for his first senior international goal, in Argentina’s 3-2 friendly loss to Croatia.

Of course, his new status as one of the finest young player of his generation brings with it ever more media attention – something the player has yet to fully come to terms with. Asked recently how he was handling being constantly in the spotlight, Messi answered: "I'm trying to deal with it as calmly as I can, although all I really want to do is to get out on the pitch and play football."

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UEFA Champions League 2005-06 player's profile

A favourite of Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi proved when inspiring Argentina to glory at the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cupp that he possesses many of the attributes which made his countryman one of the greatest footballers of all time.

Messi finished that tournament in the Netherlands as its six-goal leading scorer of which two, both penalties, came in the 2-1 final win against Nigeria. In August 2005 he was sent off 90 seconds into his senior debut against Hungary – a rare folly for a player who enhanced his reputation at the FIFA World Cup before being overlooked for the quarter-final defeat by Germany. He was at CA Newell's Old Boys as a child, but Messi moved to FC Barcelona aged 13 as his parents needed to pay for treatment he needed for a hormone deficiency. When he made his first-team debut on 16 October 2004 at RCD Espanyol, he became the third youngest player to represent the club, aged 17 years, three months and 23 days. Picked up a second successive title medal in 2006 but was on the sidelines as Barça defeated Arsenal FC in the UEFA Champions League final.

Did you know?
In June 2005 he agreed a five-year contract with a €150m buy-out clause.

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FIFA World Youth Championship Netherlands 2005 player's profile

“He’s our jewel,” says FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta about Lionel Messi, a precocious talent who has been hailed as the future of Argentine football. The left-sided midfielder moved to Spain along with his family at the age of 12 and has spent the last five years working his way through Barcelona’s youth teams.

Blessed with pace, prowess and a powerful shot, Messi became the youngest player ever to line out for the Catalan side’s first team, even coming on for a few minutes during a UEFA Champions League game. He also filled the role of playmaker for the Argentina youth side at the recent South American Championship, where he finished top scorer with seven goals. His achievements are all the more impressive when you consider he is still only 17 and the youngest member of the national squad. Unsurprisingly, his huge potential has created a wave of expectation among fans at the Camp Nou, who would love to see him regularly tormenting defences in La Liga in the run up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany ™.

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