Twenty years after his debut in the Argentine national team, Lionel Messi arrives at his last official home game -this Thursday against Venezuela in the penultimate match of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup- as the absolute leader of all statistics: no one has played as many games, scored as many goals or provided as many assists in the Albiceleste.
With a total of 112 goals and 59 assists in 193 official matches with the blue and white jersey, the Rosario-born star far surpassed the last great ’10’, Diego Armando Maradona, but also legends of the stature of Gabriel Batistuta and former teammates such as Ángel Di María and Javier Mascherano.
On August 16, 2005, a little more than two decades ago, Messi replaced Lisandro López in the 64th minute to play his first seconds in the senior national team, under José Pekerman, in a friendly against Hungary, a match in which the current coach, Lionel Scaloni, also took part.
Leo’ arrived with the best prospects after being decisive in Argentina’s triumph at the U-20 World Cup that same year, but that match in Budapest was not auspicious: with the number 18 on his back, he was sent off a minute later for a blow to an opponent while attempting his first dribble.
Pekerman was instrumental in getting the boy who had been dazzling since he was very young in Barcelona to wear the Albiceleste jersey, thanks to a call-up for an impromptu youth team friendly against Paraguay, the aim of which was to keep the rising star – just 17 years old – from being recruited by the Spanish national team.
His first goal came in 2006, when he was just 19 years old in a friendly against Croatia, and that same year he was part of the squad that played in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where he scored a goal against Serbia and Montenegro and was for the last time considered as an alternative from the bench.
From then on, Messi became the key player in every Argentina team that tried for years to break the drought that had haunted the Albiceleste since their triumph in the 1993 Copa América.
Since then, Argentina is in its ‘Messi era’: playing well or badly, by his presence or absence, everything that happens in the national team orbits around him.
La Pulga’ has 193 appearances, well ahead of the already retired Javier Mascherano (147) and Ángel Di María (145), while the closest active player is Nicolás Otamendi (126).
In Qatar 2022, he surpassed Germany’s Lothar Matthäus as the player who played the most games in World Cups (26) and also became the Argentinean with the most goals in World Cups (13), ahead of Gabriel Batistuta (10) and Diego Armando Maradona (8).
Messi also holds the record for being the youngest Argentine player to reach 100 appearances, in 2015, at the age of 27.
The 112 goals he scored for his national team are twice as many as his nearest challenger in that category, Batistuta, who scored 54, and close to tripling the third, Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero, who scored 41.
The current Argentine captain scored ten braces, seven hat-tricks, 11 free-kick goals, and even scored five goals in a single match: a 5-0 win over Estonia during the preparation for Qatar 2022.
He is also the Argentine player who has played the most finals with his national team: two for World Cups (Brazil 2014 and Qatar 2022) and five for Copa América (Venezuela 2007, Chile 2015, United States 2016, Brazil 2021 and United States 2024).
In a constant pilgrimage from one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other and in locations as dissimilar as Libya or China, the ’10’ sought for 16 years to lift a trophy that at times seemed impossible, until that Copa America final at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, in 2021, when his friend Di Maria’s goal against Brazil settled a debt of soccer with one of its best players.
From then on, and at the peak of his professional maturity, Messi had only joys: Finalísima 2022 against Italy; World Championship in Qatar 2022, with a brace in the final against France and golden boot included; and another Copa América in the United States against Colombia, with a bad ankle and tears.
In short, Messi will celebrate this Thursday in Buenos Aires, against Venezuela and whatever the result, a first closing of the history of devotion and love for his national team, after hundreds of goal shouts, but also many adversities and painful defeats against which, to the joy of an entire country, he never gave up (With information from EFE).
For more information, visit QuéOnnda.com.