Lionel Messi is preparing for his sixth World Cup at the age of 38 – a joint record with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa – but the Argentine who will lead his country’s defence of the crown is a very different player from the teenager who burst onto the scene more than two decades ago.
Most players decline. The elite ones adapt. Messi, Guillem Balague writes for BBC Sport, has not merely adapted to decline – he has adapted so he can dominate and stay ahead of a game that has always been chasing him. Since making his Barcelona debut in 2003 in a friendly against Jose Mourinho’s Porto, playing on the right and cutting inside, Messi has reinvented himself at least five times.
“Messi, 38, prepares for his sixth World Cup, having reinvented himself five times since his Barcelona debut.”
When Ronaldinho, then the world’s most recognisable player, first saw him train, he said: “He will be the best.” Two years later, in August 2005, the 18-year-old announced himself in the Joan Gamper Trophy against Juventus. Juventus manager Fabio Capello was so startled that he reportedly tried to sign him.
By the time Messi was 21, with Ronaldinho fading, Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard was clear about the role the young Argentine should play. “Right in the centre of things,” Rijkaard said. “The more he touches the ball, the better for the side.”
During the early months of Pep Guardiola’s reign in 2008, Messi still operated from the right flank, his private corridor to goal. The first time Guardiola moved him away from the wing was for defensive reasons – Messi did not track back, and the full-back struggled. But Guardiola knew Messi would end up in the centre of operations, and the team would be built around his new position.
The decisive change came on 2 May 2009 at the Santiago Bernabeu in a La Liga game. Guardiola pulled Messi off the right wing and placed him at the tip of the forward formation – but without the job of a traditional striker. Samuel Eto’o went right, Thierry Henry went left, and Messi was told to drop, receive, and decide. By full-time, Barcelona had won 6-2. The false nine was reborn.
Now, at 38, Messi is set to become the first player to win the World Cup twice in the modern era if Argentina can become the first nation to successfully defend their crown since 1962 – and just the third ever. As Balague notes, you can almost guarantee he will be at the centre of it.