Jose Pekerman, who won three Under-20 World Cups with Argentina and was Albiceleste’s senior coach from 2004 to 2006, has recalled the tactics used to prevent Leo Messi from playing for the Spanish national team at the 2025 Ole Summit in Usina del Arte.
We had to hurry because the paperwork for him to play for Spain at the U20 World Cup was already in place.
Lionel Messi reminds us who is king with outrageous golasso during Argentina training
On June 29, 2004, Pekerman, 74, organized a friendly match to protect Messi and prevent him from playing for Spain.
All he had to do was play a friendly, sign a form and send it to FIFA. That’s it, there will never be Spain again.
“In Spain, we had a history of Leo Messi in the Finnish Under-17 tournament, where he played for the Spanish national team. People in the Spanish coaching staff said that if we had that ‘kid’ we would have won,” he told Hernán Klaus.
Pekerman explained: “I told Tocalli that I was shocked and that he is a player of the future. I can’t be wrong. He was a new face for Argentine football and a blessing. But he already had the paperwork to play in the Under-20 World Cup with Spain, so that stopped him, so we had to hurry.”
“Tocalli told me that he was preparing the team for the U-20 South American Championship, which starts in a month. “How can you say you have a boy now?” I told him that I didn’t want him to play if he didn’t have to, that he would just play a friendly, sign the form and send it to FIFA. That’s it, there will never be Spain again. “I spoke to the president and told him I wanted to come because I had to make a phone call to Barcelona,” he said.
“The paperwork for Messi to represent Spain at the U-20 World Cup was ready and the planning began.”
The key to the operation was that “we were under FIFA rules that if a player plays for a youth team, he cannot play for another national team. The paperwork was in place for 18-year-old Messi to represent Spain at the Under-20 World Cup, and the operation began.”
“I told Don Julio (Grondona) to find a rival. Tocalli was aware of that, but there was one condition: the match would be played at Argentinos. If Diego had played there…” Pekerman emphasized.
Lionel Messi wore the Albiceleste shirt as Argentina defeated Paraguay 8-0 in a friendly. A game that Spain lost.
The rest is Argentina’s history. Leo Messi has 196 caps (115 goals) with Albiceleste and won the 2022 World Cup.
