Pékerman recalls Messi’s rocky Argentina debut and World Cup rise

José Pékerman was the coach who handed Lionel Messi his first senior Argentina appearance, and he still frames that journey through the same astonishing first chapter: on August 17, 2005, Messi came on for Lisandro López against Hungary and lasted only 47 seconds before being sent off.

That debut, in a friendly that began with Messi’s first call-up to the senior squad earlier that month, set the tone for an Argentina career that would move from shock and scrutiny to authority and triumph. Pékerman’s view matters because he was there at the beginning, when Messi was still a teenager trying to fit into the national team, long before he became the central figure in Argentina’s modern identity.

Messi’s first World Cup appearance came less than a year later, on June 16, 2006, in Gelsenkirchen against Serbia and Montenegro. Argentina won 6-0, and Messi’s introduction on football’s biggest stage marked the start of a tournament record that would eventually span four World Cups, three finals, and a title that had eluded him for years.

The deepest pivot came in Qatar. The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 ran from November 20 to December 18, and Argentina beat France 4-2 on penalties after a 3-3 final. Messi was named the standout player of both the match and the tournament, a distinction that crystallized how his place in Argentina had changed. He was no longer just the subject of expectation and debate. He had delivered the one result that defined generations of Argentine football conversation.

That is why Pékerman’s reflection on Messi carries weight now. He said Messi “tiene la satisfacción de despedirse con un Mundial diferente,” a line that reads as both praise and a marker of change. The 2026 World Cup will be staged in the United States, Mexico and Canada, with 48 teams and 104 matches, a larger and structurally different tournament from the one Messi conquered in Qatar.

For Argentina, Messi’s legacy is no longer measured only against early frustration or the pressure that followed his debut in 2005. Pékerman’s arc with him runs from a 47-second nightmare to a world title, and that is why this farewell feels different at home.