By Parkboy
June 29 2005

I had heard a few things about Messi, just snippets here and there and knew he had been working his way through the youth teams at Barcelona. The president of Barcelona, Juan Laporta had been quoted as saying,"He's our jewel". Messi and his family moved from Argentina to Spain when he was twelve to start his football education at the Camp Nou.

Also recently he had been praised by Maradonna and also broke into the Barcelona first team at the tender age of 17, the youngest player ever to do so in the history of the club - as Alan Hansen might say, "He's a bit special".

I settled down to the live coverage of the semi-finals of the Fifa world youth championship (U20), excited at being able to view at last Lionel Messi and see for myself what all the fuss was about and to give things that extra edge it would be against traditional rivals Brazil.

My first worry was locating him on the pitch. I knew he would be wearing the No18, but not having ever had a close look at him I was scanning the Argentine front players every time they attacked for shirt numbers. Messi is left footed with a low centre of gravity and stocky, as is also half their forward line as far as I could make out.

In the seventh minute a player picked up the ball casually about thirty yards out on the right in a situation that only looked half dangerous and he was also immediately covered by three defenders. The player drifted by the first defender like a ghost, cutting inside with the second defender backing off he unleashed a clinical strike with his left foot which sailed into the top right hand corner : I had found Messi. His first touch: Bang! One nil.

Playing in a forward role just behind the striker, Messi was taking up positions right across the front line. At Barcelona he is seen as a midfield forward a role honed on the continent and played to perfection by the likes of Raul. The player doubles as the second striker, but often is the creative spark at the business end of attacking forays. In England we are familiar with a similar positon when someone plays, 'in the hole'. At Newcaste Peter Beardsley was one of the closest to mastering this exotic position where a player needs to always be thinking. The thing about Messi is that is just comes naturally to him and he will be a frightening prospect for defenders in the 2010 World Cup.

By the 31st minute Messi had actually only had two touches, the first being the goal. So when he picked up the ball wide on the right with Argentine forwards streaming forward, he was fouled twice to put a halt to the promising move. It wasn't even when he was on the ball, but for the remaining first half you could feel panic spread through the Brazil side if he got near the ball. To be honest I can't remember any of the Brazilian front line as I don't think any one of them had a
shot on goal. Their youth team looking like one of the worst in recent history and only Rafael the right back coming out of the game with any credit.

Messi the designated corner taker put in a few reasonable corners in the second half, but for a little period at the beginning of the second half was in danger of drifting out of the game as Brazil had periods of unproductive posession. Brazil then went on to score in the 75th minute with a backward header from Renato from a long hopeful lobbed free kick from the middle of the Argentine half.

The thing about players who can change games is that if they do drift out of games, they tend to switch right back on if the opposition scores. Immedialtely after the goal, Messi increased his running, chasing down back passes, harrying defenders and looking hungry.

There was one more mazy but blocked run in the 85th minute as Argentina pressed a tired looking Brazil side.

Then at the last gasp in the 93rd minute Messi picked up the ball from a throw in this time on the right and well in the Brazil half. He pushed the ball past Rafael the right back and skipped over the tackle a la Maradonna and if you squinted the movements could have been that of the master. The cross inch perfect and from the blocked shot the Argentine captain Zabaleyta scored on the follow up. It was all over.

Messi having had the first word had also had the last with an excellent assist. The players hugged and as they walked away for the restart Messi wandered back as if he was taking part in a Sunday kick about,,,You had the feeling he was preparing for greater moments to come. You can be sure they will. A new master is rising.