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Lionel’s quartet chase de la Fuente
In football, there are confrontations that begin years before the kick-off whistle, and the details of which remain in the memory, no matter how many championships are won and roles are changed. Among these stories, the one that first connected Lionel Messi to Luis de la Fuente in 2004 stands out, when one was a young talent on his way to stardom and the other was the coach of Sevilla’s youth team. Twenty-two years later, the two men are back for another showdown, but this time on the world’s biggest football stage, the 2026 World Cup final.
It was on May 15, 2004, when Luis de la Fuente led the youth team of “Seville” against “Barcelona” in the return match of the 16th round of the Spanish Youth Cup at the “Minestadi” stadium. At the time, everyone was talking about a 16-year-old boy named Lionel Messi, who was starting to establish himself as one of the most outstanding talents at the La Masia academy.
The match ended with an exceptional display from the young Argentine star, who scored four goals for Barcelona against Sevilla to lead his side to victory, leaving De La Fuente unable to find a way to stop him, in one of the first nights that revealed to the world the extent of the talent the Rosario native possesses.
More than two decades later, the two men face each other again, but the scene is very different. Messi has become one of the greatest footballers in history, and De La Fuente takes over as Spain’s captain, and this time they are fighting for the World Cup title in Sunday’s final in New York.
The coach of the Spanish national team smiled and recalled that memory during the press conference before the final match and said: “I met Lionel Messi when I was coaching the youth team of Sevilla. I had heard a lot about a boy named Messi. At first we marked him off, but in the 70th minute, the player assigned to mark him, I decided to replace him in 5 minutes. This time we will not mention him individually, although our players will also be mentioned. He said it jokingly.
That quartet was not just an exceptional encounter, but rather an extension of an amazing season that began to shape a new football legend. In the 2003–04 season, Messi made 37 official appearances for Barcelona Youth (B), Barcelona Youth (A), Barcelona (C) and Barcelona (B), in addition to his first appearance in a friendly with the first team, during which he scored 35 goals.
He was also one of the biggest stars of the Copa del Rey, as he not only scored a hat-trick against Sevilla, but also scored twice against Osasuna in the first leg of the semi-final, although Barcelona crashed out of the tournament and failed to reach the final. newspaper”Mundo Deportivo:“Spanish.
That season was the true starting point of Messi’s career as he soon received his first call-up to represent Argentina’s under-20 team, where he made two appearances and scored three goals, marking the start of a journey that would take him to the pinnacle of world football.
Today, twenty-two years after that first meeting, Messi and de la Fuente’s paths cross again. One is no longer a teenage player dreaming of glory, the other is not a youth academy coach. Messi, who has established himself as one of the best players in the game, is bidding to win the World Cup for the second time in his career, while De La Fuente is looking to lead Spain to their second World Cup title.
The question that will be answered by the final of the World Cup remains. Will the coach of “La Roja” manage to take revenge for the memory of the quartet, which still remains in his memory, or will Messi rewrite the new chapter of the history that began twenty-two years ago?
