Forty-Seven Seconds

OTD E0290 — 17 Aug 2005: Eighteen-year-old Lionel Messi comes off the bench against Hungary to make his senior Argentina debut. Forty-seven seconds later, he is sent off. We trace Argentina’s mythology of the number 10, Messi’s journey from Rosario and Newell’s to Barcelona, the napkin agreement, his explosive rise from 2003 to 2005, the Under-20 World Cup, the bizarre Budapest debut — and the extraordinary 21 years that followed, all the way through Barcelona, PSG, Inter Miami, the 2022 World Cup and another record-breaking World Cup in 2026.Ideas: [email protected]