Ahead of Spain’s FIFA World Cup final clash against Argentina, La Roja’s coach Luis de la Fuente recalled an experience from when he was coaching Sevilla’s youth team while Messi was playing junior football for Barcelona, underlining how it was impossible to keep him quiet for the whole match.

“I first encountered Leo Messi when I was coaching the Sevilla youth team. We went to Barcelona, and I had heard great things about a kid named Messi. So we assigned a player to mark him man-to-man, but in the 70th minute, I substituted the marker because he was on a yellow card. The score was 0-0, and in the span of 15 minutes, Messi scored four goals against us,” said de la Fuente, before adding: “We won’t use man-to-man marking this time, but we have to stay alert and pay special attention [to him], certainly.”