Alternate football history: What if Lionel Messi wore Spanish jersey tonight?

The grand finale of the World Cup between Argentina and Spain (tonight at 22:00) has once again launched one of the most intriguing football questions in history into the spotlight: Just how close was Lionel Messi to wearing the red jersey of La Furia Roja?

In an alternate reality, the entire history of the sport could have looked completely different had the shy boy from Rosario decided in favor of the country that provided him with medical treatment and his football rise.

Writing history or passing the torch? Spain vs Argentina: The ultimate showdown

Messi grew up in a modest home in a working-class neighborhood of Rosario, spending endless hours playing football with his older brothers and friends on dusty, rocky streets. When word got out about an extraordinarily gifted but exceptionally small boy, Barcelona offered not only a contract but also to pay for the expensive growth hormone treatments necessary for his normal development.

At the age of 13, Messi packed his bags and moved to the famous La Masia. By law, immigrants from former Spanish colonies, which includes Argentina, are eligible to apply for citizenship after just two years of continuous legal residence instead of the usual ten. This automatically put the young Messi on the path to obtaining a Spanish passport and choosing which national team to play for.

Before leaving for Europe, there was no doubt in his mind. In an interview with the local Rosario newspaper Diario La Capital in September 2000, as a 13-year-old, when asked what his biggest dream was, Messi answered shortly: "To play for Argentina."

However, that call from his homeland did not come for years, even after he became the best player in Barcelona's youth academy. Messi was coming of age in a generation with Cesc Fabregas and Gerard Pique, who regularly played for Spain's youth selections. Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, nobody knew about Leo. He was far from the eyes and far from the hearts of the national team managers there.

Seeing that Argentina was ignoring the wonderkid, Barcelona’s youth coach at the time, Alex Garcia, alerted the manager of Spain’s U17 selection, Gines Melendez. He told him there was a kid eligible for a Spanish passport whom nobody from his homeland was calling.

The Spaniards immediately went into action to convince him to play for them at the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship. Melendez later admitted with a laugh: "When I found out what kind of potential he had, I thought about kidnapping him, that's how much we wanted him to play for Spain."

While Spain was putting pressure on Messi and asking Fabregas to convince him to make the switch, Claudio Vivas, the assistant coach of Argentina’s senior national team, traveled to Barcelona to visit some older players. Messi’s father, Jorge, seized the opportunity and scheduled a brief meeting at a hotel to show Vivas a video of his son.

It was an iconic 12-minute VHS tape. It clearly showed Leo literally humiliating and bypassing kids on the pitch who were two years older than him. Vivas was so shocked by what he saw that he immediately called Argentina’s U17 manager, Hugo Tocalli, from his hotel room and told him: "Please, we cannot miss this opportunity. If we don’t react quickly—not because of the boy or his father, but because of the pressure Spain is putting on him—we will lose an unprecedented player."

Yet, coach Tocalli did not understand the urgency of the situation at first. Not wanting to disrupt an already well-drilled squad and bring in a kid he had never seen live, he did not call him up for the 2003 tournament. By an irony of fate, it was Spain that eliminated Argentina in the semifinals of that tournament, and Messi’s club teammate Cesc Fabregas scored two goals, including the winner in the 119th minute.

After that match, the famous Argentine tactician Jose Pekerman revealed a detail that made the Argentines wake up instantly. During the handshakes on the pitch after the final whistle, the Spanish players approached the Argentine coach and openly told him: "If you had that kid from Barcelona in your team, you would be the champions today."

Following that tournament, Argentina finally realized what they had in their hands. They hastily organized a matter-of-fact, rather bizarre friendly youth match against Paraguay with just one goal—to get Messi on the pitch for at least a single minute in the official protocol, thus permanently revoking his eligibility to ever play for Spain. The rest is history, and more than two decades later, that very same shy boy from the VHS tape leads Argentina in the final against the country whose jersey he almost wore.

WORLD CUP - KNOCKOUT STAGE

Sunday

Third-place match

France - England 4-6 (0-4)

/Mbappe 48, 66, Barcola 54, Dembele 90+6 - Rice 3, Konsa 18, Saka 37, 45+1, 87 pen, Bellingham 90+8/

Final

22.00: (2.35) Spain (3.00) Argentina (3.60)

***odds are subject to change***