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Centurion Lionel Messi Desperate to Break Argentina Trophy Drought
Published: June 19, 2015
It all started on rather inauspicious terms for the best player in the world. Messi's international debut, in a friendly against Hungary on August 17, 2005, lasted all of one-and-a-half minutes. The teenage Barcelona sensation was thrown on the pitch by coach Jose Pekerman in the second half, recalls BBC Sport's Tim Vickery, only to be sent right back to the dressing room for a nonexistent elbow that led to a red card.
Messi was left in tears after his aborted introduction to the international game. But thankfully for Argentinian football, Pekerman defended and kept faith in his young prodigy, and the rest his history.
La Pulga is set to join a very exclusive club. Just four players in the long and illustrious history of the Argentina national football team have gone on to break the century mark for their country, a hint into the fierce competition for places throughout the years. Two of those figures, Javier Zanetti and Roberto Ayala (145 and 115 caps respectively), played in defence.
The other two, Diego Simeone and Javier Mascherano (106 and 113 caps respectively) have also been geared more toward protecting those at the back than trying to score goals—Mascherano being Simeone's successor as the general in the middle of the pitch.
Messi, then, becomes Argentina's first attacking centurion, reaching a milestone that neither Gabriel Batistuta, Diego Maradona, Ariel Ortega nor Hernan Crespo could manage.
It is a testament to Messi's importance to the Albiceleste. With 46 goals on international duty, he is already the nation's second-highest scorer of all time, and...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football
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