A few days before the actor Christopher Reeve, the legendary Superman, had died, and almost nobody imagined that the Argentine player who was making his debut in Barcelona’s first team was set to become football’s Superman.
It was the month of October, 2004, and the world was awaiting the outcome of the battle between George Bush and John Kerry, who were fighting for the top job at the White House.
There was no hint of an economic crisis and the streets were full of people talking about the new penalty points system being adopted for for Spanish driving licences. Meanwhile, the Universal Forum of Culture had just ended in the city of Barcelona.
That was the context to Lionel Messi’s Barca debut. He had already appeared one year before, but that was in a friendly against Jose Mourinho’s Porto and it was not until October 16, 2004, when he would play his first official match with Barca.
The setting was Montjuic for a Catalan derby against Espanyol which ended 0-1. Messi came on for Deco, who had scored the game’s only goal, in the 82nd minute and was wearing a shirt with the No. 30 on the back.
From that Barca side, only Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez have survived.
Messi was 17 years, three months and 22 days old, becoming the second youngest player to debut in the first team - a record later broken by Bojan Krkic.
