when did messi started playing for barca first team
Lionel Messi During the 2003–04 season, his fourth with Barcelona, Messi rapidly progressed through the club's ranks, debuting for a record five teams in a single campaign. After being named player of the tournament in four international pre-season competitions with the Juveniles B, he played only one official match with the team before being promoted to the Juveniles A, where he scored 18 goals in 11 league games.[30][31] Messi was then one of several youth players called up to strengthen a depleted first team during the international break. French Winger Ludovic Giuly explained how a teenage Leo caught the eye in a training session with Frank Rijkaard's first team: "He destroyed us all... They were kicking him all over the place to avoid being ridiculed by this kid, he just got up and kept on playing. He would dribble past four players and score a goal. Even the team's starting centre-backs were nervous. He was an alien."[32] At 16 years, four months, and 23 days old, he made his first team debut when he came on in the 75th minute during a friendly against José Mourinho's Porto on 16 November 2003.[21][33] His performance, creating two chances and a shot on goal, impressed the technical staff, and he subsequently began training daily with the club's reserve side, Barcelona B, as well as weekly with the first team.[34] After his first training session with the senior squad, Barça's new star player, Ronaldinho, told his teammates that he believed the 16-year-old would become an even better player than himself.[35] Ronaldinho soon befriended Messi, whom he called "little brother", which greatly eased his transition into the first team.[36][37]
List of international goals scored by Lionel Messi Messi has scored 21 goals in FIFA World Cup qualifiers, making him the all-time top scorer of the qualification in CONMEBOL, along with his Barcelona teammate Luis Suárez.[6] He has scored eight goals in Copa América,[1] leading his team to the final of the tournament in 2007, 2015, and 2016, each time finishing as a runner-up. At the 2015 tournament, he allegedly rejected the Best Player award and the trophy was omitted from the ceremony.[7][8] He has scored six times in the FIFA World Cup tournaments,[1] once in 2006, four times in 2014, when he guided his team to the final and was awarded the Golden Ball, and once in the 2018 World Cup finals.[9] The remainder of Messi's goals, 30, have come in friendlies.[1]