Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maaria have been playing together since 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The two best friends in the world of football won the gold medals together that year in Beijing. Their journey began there and they are walking the path together to this day for Argentina. They suffered the heartbreaks together and conquered them together to win last year’s FIFA World Cup. It all began on this day 15 years ago when Messi and Di Maria formed an unbreakable bond by touching a major milestone.
Lionel Messi made his debut for the Argentina national team in 2004 at 17 years of age. The next year, he participated in the 2005 FIFA U20 World Cup and won the tournament. Whereas, Angel Di Maria made his Argentina debut in 2007. That same year, he was called up for the 2007 FIFA U20 World Cup which he won. They came together the next year in 2008 in the U23 Argentina team for the Olympic Games in Beijing. They didn’t only win the gold medal, but they also formed a lifelong friendship.
Argentina started the competition well enough by topping their group. They won 3 out of their 3 group stage games against Australia, Ivory Coast, and Serbia. In the knockout stages, they competed against the Netherlands and Brazil. They won 2-1 against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. Next, they won 3-0 against Brazil in the semi-finals. In the final, they faced Nigeria who posed a great threat to the team that sailed past tough opponents so far. Their surprise switching of points of attacks and speed caused problems for La Albicelestes.
They missed chances on both halves of the clock which costed them greatly at the end of 90 minutes. The Argentina team was mainly built around Messi and two overage players – Javier Mascherano and Juan Roman Riquelme. However, it was the 20-year-old Angel Di Maria that shone through that day. He scored the sole goal of the final and won Argentina the gold medals. It was on this day 15 years ago on 23rd August, 2008 when Messi and Di Maria touched their first international glory together.
Reminiscing the win at a later stage in his career, Lionel Messi said, “The Olympic gold in 2008 is the win that I value the most because it is a tournament that you may play only once in your life and involves many athletes from different disciplines.” Thus, their journey to greatness with the Argentina team began. Di Maria walked the same path of heartbreaks alongside Messi. They lost 3 major international tournament finals together in the span of 3 years.
Starting from the 2014 World Cup final, they lost both 2015 and 2016 Copa America finals. Lionel Messi even decided to retire from the international team after their 3rd final defeat in 3 years. However, the retirement was short-lived and he came back. Their 2018 World Cup campaign ended at the round-of-16 stage. In the 2019 Copa America, they were knocked out by Brazil in the semi-finals.
They path to succession began in the 2020 Copa America that was postponed to 2021 due to Covid. Messi and Di Maria finally had their moment and won a major international trophy. 2021 Copa America trophy was their first achievement. In the Finalissima that followed the win, they won against European champions Italy. Then came the 2022 World Cup which bore fruit to all hardships the two friends endured throughout their long journey with Argentina. That journey together began on this day 15 years ago.
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