De la Fuente recalls Messi’s four-goal masterclass: ‘In 15 minutes, he scored four against us’

Spain head coach Luis de la Fuente has revealed the humbling story of the first time he encountered Lionel Messi – a teenage sensation who scored four goals against his Sevilla youth side in just 15 minutes.

Speaking at Friday’s pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final against Argentina, de la Fuente was asked whether he planned to use a man-marking strategy to contain the 39-year-old maestro. His response was a candid trip down memory lane.

“I’m going to tell you something very funny, speaking about Messi,” de la Fuente began. “I first encountered Lionel Messi when I was coaching Sevilla’s youth team in the División de Honor”.

The date was 15 May 2004. De la Fuente’s Sevilla side travelled to Barcelona for the second leg of their U-19 Copa del Rey round-of-16 tie, played at the Mini Estadi. Messi, just 16 years old, was already the talk of La Masia.

“We went to Barcelona, and I had heard great things about a kid named Messi,” de la Fuente recalled. “So obviously, we assigned a player to mark him man-to-man”.

For 70 minutes, the strategy appeared to be working. The score was 0-0. But then came the turning point: the player assigned to shadow Messi received a yellow card. De la Fuente made the fateful decision to substitute him.

“I took him off, and in 15 minutes, he scored four goals against us,” de la Fuente said.

The match ended 4-0 to Barcelona. Messi’s four goals came in a devastating late burst that left de la Fuente’s side completely helpless. The young Argentine went on to score twice more in the semi-final first leg against Osasuna.

That season, 2003-04, Messi played 37 matches across Barcelona’s youth and B teams, scoring 35 goals. He had already debuted for the first team in a friendly against Porto on 16 November 2003, at just 16 years and 145 days old.

More than two decades later, de la Fuente and Messi meet again – this time on football’s biggest stage. But the Spain coach made one thing clear: he will not repeat the man-marking experiment.

“Does this mean we’re going to use man-to-man marking? No,” de la Fuente said with a smile. “But will we be very attentive to him? Yes – just as they will have to pay close attention to our players”.

“Great players always require special attention,” he added. “In this match, there are many players on both Argentina and Spain that we need to watch – but one of them, obviously, is Leo Messi”.

De la Fuente also praised Messi as “one of a kind” and “an example for young athletes”, while refusing to compare him to Spain’s own teenage star Lamine Yamal.

Sunday’s final at MetLife Stadium kicks off at 3pm ET. For de la Fuente, the lesson from 22 years ago is clear: man-mark Messi at your peril. But leave him even a fraction of space? As he knows better than anyone, the result can be catastrophic.