Lionel Messi first appeared in the Albiceleste when he was only 18 years old. The whole world already knew about the talent of the young genius from Barcelona. For a long time he was on the pencil of the coaching staff of the adult national team of Argentina, so his call to the national team was not long in coming.

However, Lionel played only 40 seconds until he was sent off.

Messi received a very controversial direct red card for punching an opponent in the face.

“It was not the way I dreamed all my life”

Messi’s debut for the national team took place on August 17, 2005 in a friendly match against Hungary. At the same time, the prodigy from Barcelona was not taken to the Argentina national team in order to look at his level and abilities – there was simply no need for this. Rather, Messi needed to feel what it means to represent his country on the football field. After all, even then it was clear that the joint history of Albiseleste and the striker would be long and eventful. And the sooner he adapts to playing for the national team, the better it will be for all of Argentine football.

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The very same match against Hungary, Messi started not in the starting lineup, but on the bench. The young Argentine watched the game and was noticeably nervous, because he knew that soon he would have the opportunity to prove himself. With the psychological pressure before the most important game or debut, each player copes differently. However, almost everyone notes that when they enter the field, after a few seconds, all nervousness disappears. Still, this is not the case for everyone, because even players of such a caliber as Messi cannot always cope with emotions.

The Argentine wunderkind ran onto the field after a substitution in the 63rd minute and almost immediately got a chance to prove himself. Messi did not calmly enter the game, making passes to gain confidence. On the contrary, as soon as he received the ball in someone else’s half of the field, he immediately rushed towards the penalty area, using signature dribbling. It was impossible to interrupt the attack of the Argentinean without a foul for the defense of Hungary. So the defender Vilmos Vancak simply could not keep up with the swift opponent, so he grabbed the young player’s jersey from the back.

Messi was too eager to prove himself in this moment and immediately score on his debut. After all, what a beautiful story it would be: less than a minute later, after the replacement, Messi went through the entire defense and scored the first goal for the national team. Yes, and the situation allowed – in front of him was a free corridor up to the gate.

Therefore, Messi did not give the ball to his partners, but decided to throw off his opponent on his own. The Argentinean tried to brush off Vancak with his hand, but the defender continued to hold on tightly to his jersey. Then Messi, without slowing down, made another attempt. However, this time he hit Wanczak’s face with a sweeping hand movement. The Hungarian defender immediately fell to the lawn, showing with all his appearance that he had been dealt an accented blow.

At that moment, all the Argentine players ran up to the chief referee of the meeting, Markus Merk. Albiceleste players began to prove to the German referee that Wantsak’s fall was too simulated, and this episode was not even worth a whistle. But Merck did not listen to the arguments of the Argentines and reached into his pocket. First, the German showed a yellow card to the Hungarian defender for his overprotection of the opponent.

And then the referee suddenly showed red in the direction of Messi, which immediately aroused the indignation of all the players in Argentina. The prodigy from Barcelona did not argue with the referee and silently went towards the locker room. Still, he failed to cope with emotions due to a blurry debut, leaving the field the Argentine began to cry. Messi barely felt a childhood dream come true and immediately lost it.

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“He grabbed me hard and I wanted to break free, but the referee interpreted it as if I was trying to hit him. I still had a lot of time in the game to prove myself, but then something happened that happened. It wasn’t like I dreamed all my life,” Messi recalled.

In this match, Messi’s teammate was Lionel Scaloni, who now leads Argentina in Qatar. He also recalled how much Messi got upset about the red card.

Lionel didn’t stop crying in the locker room after that. And even though we won. He was just a little boy. But it showed how much playing for the Argentina national team meant to him, Scaloni recalled.

Until now, the fans have not come to a consensus on the referee’s decision. Messi received the second red card in his career almost 14 years later. This happened during the 2019 Copa America in the match for third place between Argentina and Chile.