The secret history of Messi’s debut shirt in the national team: how Leandro Chichizola lost it

He didn’t know at the time, but when he was still a teenager, Leandro Chichizola He is left with a true relic of Lionel Messi’s sports career: the number 18 shirt with which he officially made his debut with the Argentine national team.

The former River goalkeeper was thus present on August 17, 2005 and, after the final whistle of the match, he kept the shirt of the boy who was making his debut and who will then be acclaimed by millions of fans around the world as the best of all time . But the story didn’t have a great ending. What was he doing there?

“He was the ball catcher of the national team with many teammates from the River pension and in a game, before the 2006 World Cup, Messi’s first World Cup, give me the shirtthe number 18 “, he began to count Leandro in an interview with the television channel ESPN.

Lionel made his debut in the national team in the friendly match against the Hungarian national team where he was sent off a few minutes after entering the field for a slap to the player Vilmos Vanczák after the Hungarian tried to stop him with a pinch of his shirt.

“The next game he was available in, let’s say, he played at home, in The Monumental against Peru that Argentina won and that mathematically qualified for the 2006 World Cup. And well, Leo was doing interviews and I said to him: ‘Will you give me the shirt?‘, and he looked at me, “he continued with the detailed account of that moment.” I was (I was) 12, 13 or 14, I guess I even asked the security guard for his shirt, “Leandro said.

Chichizola has kept Messi’s shirt as a precious trophy for years. A shirt that, over the years and a career of Messi that has never stopped growing, has had more value every day, as if it were that first Bitcoin in December 2012 that exchanged 13 dollars and reached the ceiling of 45,000.

Years later, when the goalkeeper was sold to Europe to play in Las Palmas, he asked a friend to move the shirt in the car to take it to the Old Continent: “I had a friend who was about to come to Europe and I told him: ‘Well, I’ll meet Messi, I’ll tell him to sign it for me and I’ll tell him the story he probably didn’t even remember: he wouldn’t have imagined that the boy he gave the shirt to arrived in the First Division and went to play in Europe “, he recalled with a smile on his face. lips the doorman of the 32 years old of that surprising and unforgettable moment.

The story was dreamy. All conditions had been met chichizola had one of the most important memories of the Argentine champion’s career and, moreover, with his signature. But a situation unrelated to Leandro made that great moment become a story with a sad ending.

It is that, when the friend wore the shirt of Messi’s debut in the Argentine national team, the least expected thing happened: “They stole my friend’s car and I let her into the car“said the current goalkeeper of the parma from Italy unfortunately for what happened.

“The person doesn’t know the value of that shirt because it was Messi’s first match in the senior national team, “concluded the River goalkeeper.

Messi, according to Chichizola, another River fan

Chichizola swears Lionel Messi is a River fan. Or at least that his colors throw him away more than those of Boca. Is that, when the remembered final of the Copa Libertadores was played between the two most famous clubs of Argentina in Madrid on 9 and 12 of 2018, the captain of the Argentine national team took a plane to the Spanish capital in order not to miss the historic match .

“On the day of the Bernabeu final I had it in the garage. I was with Fer Cavenaghi, with the guys from River, Gabi Mercado, Manu Lanzini, with all the guys who went to see the game “, said Leandro about the presence of the ten at the stadium of his historic rival.

After being present in an area of ​​the stadium where there were more fans than Nuñez’s team, chichizola places Leo as another fan of the team that saw him born. “We had him behind with all the people of River. Let’s say he pulls more for the River team, let’s say he’s a River fan even if he doesn’t say it and his heart definitely belongs to Newell’s, “said the goalkeeper jokingly.

One of the images that went around the world was the gesture of today’s Paris Saint Germain player when Darío Benedetto scored the 1-0 partial. Calm and with a surprised face, the Argentine showed up in the door of Boca. When asked if he had seen Lio celebrate the goals of the millionaireChichizola replied: “With River’s goals I didn’t even remember that Lio Messi was behind it“.