Since his time at La Masia, Lionel Messi was already surprising many with his talent to surpass his rivals and his scoring ability. It was no different when he made his official debut for Barcelona in October 2004, at the age of 17. From there, he has continued to collect praise.
This is how Italian coach Fabio Capello remembered it, telling how, after seeing the Argentinian play for only 20 minutes, he asked Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard, who was then the Barcelona coach, to loan him.
It was on August 24, 2005, in the first Joan Gamper Trophy that Lionel Messi played in and that pitted Rijkaard's Barza against Fabio Capello's Juventus. It took the Italian just a few plays from "La Pulga" to realize that he was facing a "crack".
"I saw him at 18 years old, starting in a Gamper. 20 minutes into the match, I left the bench, went to Rijkaard on the sidelines, and asked him if he could loan him to Juve. He didn't give him to me", Capello recounted with laughter.
That season, Juventus had players like Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Pavel Nedved, Alessandro Del Piero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, among other stars. Despite Capello's request, Lionel did not leave Barcelona during the match.
