The Barcelona prospect was almost a stranger in his home country, but by the end of the 2005 Under-20 World Cup he was on the way to stardom

Among the billions of people worldwide that follow football, there can be few who are at this stage unaware of the achievements of Lionel Messi.

Over the last decade and a half, Messi has made himself one of the most famous sportspeople on the planet thanks to his exploits with Barcelona and Argentina, a path that was already hinted at when he waltzed to Under-20 World Cup success in 2005. There was a time, however, when he was just another young hopeful – albeit one marked out for future stardom – and even his compatriots were not entirely sure who he was.

The year before Messi and his team-mates took the title in Netherlands, Barcelona’s office received a fax from an Argentine FA employee requesting the release of one of their youth team players for an upcoming training camp. It may have taken a moment of head-scratching before the Catalans discovered that “Leonel Mecci”, as the missive erroneously stated, referred to their budding star, then 16. The error was swiftly corrected in Barca’s response, which explained that Messi was needed for the Youth Copa del Rey.