Lionel Messi: From international nightmare to football immortality

There are football stories that begin with triumph, and there are football stories that are built through pain. Lionel Messi's story with Argentina belongs firmly to the second category.

Lionel Messi's story with Argentina belongs firmly to the second category. For almost two decades, Messi carried the weight of a football-mad nation on his shoulders.

He experienced the humiliation of an early red card, the agony of lost finals, the criticism of supporters who questioned his commitment and, at one point, the heartbreak of walking away from international football altogether. Yet the same player who once left the pitch in tears would eventually become the captain who lifted the trophies Argentina had been waiting for.

Messi's relationship with Argentina was never simple. It was a complicated love story between a country desperate for success and a player expected to deliver it.

His brilliance at club level, particularly with Barcelona, created enormous expectations every time he wore the famous blue and white shirt. But before the celebrations, there was plenty of suffering.

A nightmare beginning Messi's Argentina journey began in 2005 with one of the worst possible starts. Making his senior international debut against Hungary as an 18-year-old, the young forward was sent off only minutes after coming onto the pitch following an altercation with Vilmos Vanczák.

It was hardly the introduction anyone would have imagined for a player who would eventually become Argentina's most celebrated footballer. Messi reportedly left the field in tears.

The moment was symbolic of what was to come: a career with Argentina that would be filled with extraordinary talent but also extraordinary pressure. A year later, he was already showing glimpses of the player he would become at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Messi featured in Argentina's 6-0 demolition of Serbia and Montenegro, announcing himself on the biggest stage. But Argentina's campaign ended painfully in the quarter-finals against Germany, with the hosts progressing on penalties.