After Messi’s World Cup win with Argentina, video of Maradona reacting to his international debut resurfaces

After having missed out on the opportunity in 2014, Lionel Messi finally lifted the World Cup along with Argentina in 2022 as La Albiceleste beat France 4-2 on penalties in the summit clash on Sunday.
The win made him only the third Argentina skipper to lift the trophy after Daniel Passarella in 1978 and Diego Maradona in 1986. Messi not having won the World Cup had been the only thing many felt separated him from the former Argentina captain and coach.
With the big prophecy in the South American nation finally having become true, plenty of Diego Maradona images and videos have been doing round on the social media, including his reaction to a young Messi making his first appearance for Argentina senior men’s national team back in 2005.

Maradona’s reaction here to Messi coming on as a substitute for his first ever #FIFAWorldCup game in 2006. 16 years later Messi is in his second World Cup final, this one feels more like Maradona 1986. True heir to El Diego, & El Diego knew it.
VC: cut YT channel (MessiTheBoss) pic.twitter.com/1vrNHi1UQL
— Rehan Ulhaq (@Rehan_ulhaq) December 14, 2022
Messi came on as a substitute against Hungary in a friendly during the second half. Maradona, present in the stands during the game at the Ferenc Puskás Stadium, can be seen rejoicing as he watches the long haired forward come on.
The occasion was marred pretty quickly as Messi would be sent off after two minutes for a foul against Vilmos Vanczak, who had grabbed his shirt earlier. The then Barcelona player had struck the defender with his arm while trying to shake him off, which the referee interpreted as an intentional elbowing, resulting in an early sent off for Messi.Subscriber Only StoriesPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
Leading Argentina at Qatar 2022, Messi surpassed Maradona in terms of the overall goals tally for Argentina at the World Cup and later also became the player with most goals for his country at the finals. With his two goals in the final, Messi also finished with a total of 21 goal contributions at the World Cup, more than any other player ever.