Lionel Messi is preparing for his sixth World Cup – a joint record with Cristiano Ronaldo and Guillermo Ochoa – and should Argentina defend their crown, he will be at the centre of it. But the 38-year-old who leads Inter Miami bears almost no resemblance to the dazzling teenager who announced himself to the world two decades ago.
Most players decline. The elite ones find ways to adapt. Messi has not 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 a friendly against José Mourinho’s Porto as a 16-year-old right-winger, cutting inside and dribbling, he has reinvented himself at least five times.
“Lionel Messi prepares for his sixth World Cup at 38, having reinvented himself five times since his 2003 debut.”
When Ronaldinho, then the best player in the world, saw him train for the first time, he said: “He will be the best.” Two years later, in August 2005, an 18-year-old Messi stunned Juventus in the Joan Gamper Trophy. Fabio Capello, the Juventus manager, was so startled he reportedly tried to sign him.
By the time Messi was 21, with Ronaldinho fading, Barcelona boss Frank Rijkaard knew what the team needed. “Right in the centre of things,” Rijkaard said. “The more he touches the ball, the better for the side.” In Pep Guardiola’s first months in charge in 2008, the right side was Messi’s corridor – his private road to goal. Guardiola moved him away from the wing for defensive reasons: he did not track back, and the full-back struggled. But Guardiola knew Messi would end up in the centre, and the team would be built around his new position.
The date: 2 May 2009. The place: Santiago Bernabéu. 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: drop, receive, decide. By full-time it was 6-2. The false nine was reborn – a system pioneered decades earlier by Gusztáv Sebes’ Hungary, who dismantled England on their own turf.
Now, as Argentina chase history – the first back-to-back World Cup winners since 1962 – Messi enters the tournament as a veteran who barely runs but still orchestrates. His evolution is complete: from winger to false nine to eternal fulcrum.