"You knew he was going to be very good" - Argentine goalkeeper recalls playing with Lionel Messi at the 2005 U-20 World Cup
Former Argentina Under-20 goalkeeper Nereo Champagne has recalled his experience of sharing the dressing room with Lionel Messi at the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The Paris Saint-Germain superstar did not win his first major trophy with Argentina's senior national team until 2021 when he won the Copa America. He then won La Albiceleste their first FIFA World Cup trophy in 36 years in Qatar last December, bagging seven goals and three assists in seven games in the tournament.
The first trophy Messi ever won with Argentina was the 2005 FIFA Youth World Championship (now known as the FIFA U-20 World Cup). The then 18-year-old scored six times and provided two assists for the side in the Netherlands on that occasion and was the tournament's top scorer and best player.
The left-footed maestro was notably only introduced to the team a year before the tournament. Champagne, who was in Argentina's U-20 World Cup winning squad in 2005, has recollected his first memory of Messi, telling Infobae:
"One day we were training and they came to tell us, 'A boy who lives in Spain is coming, but he is going to play for the (Argentina) national team, which is what he wants."
Champagne added that it was easy to predict that Messi would go on to become a world-class player. However, he expressed his surprise at how the 35-year-old has managed to stay at the top for as long as he has done, saying:
"You knew that he (Lionel Messi) was going to be very good, but it was unimaginable that he was going to be the best for so many years in a row. We all know the move he is going to make, you can see it on YouTube, he makes it and it comes out."
"And there is the mental side, how to sustain yourself at that level. For things to not work out for you in the national team and try again and again, it's the greatest example he set. And to play with that passion."
Although Champagne was in the squad, he did not feature for Argentina at the U-20 World Cup in 2005.
What happened to Lionel Messi's Argentina Under-20 teammates?
Nereo Champagne, 38, is among the players from Argentina's U-20 World Cup winning squad that has not featured for the senior team. He currently plies his trade at Spanish club Rayo Majadahonda. Lionel Messi's other Under-20 teammates like Pablo Zabaleta, Sergio Aguero and Ezequiel Garay went on to have successful careers.