Young Lionel Messi was doing his thing 21 years ago. However, it wasn’t in the colors of Barcelona as we know him. Back then, it was for boyhood team Newells Old Boys on the streets of Santa Fe. You’re forgiven if you assumed the embattled attacker had the luxury of the big stage from infancy.

This is a rare one: it is not often you get to feast your eyes on the sawn-off star strutting his stuff for none other than the Catalan giants (if not in national team colors), so watch this.

The Young Lionel Messi Effect

Young Lionel Messi. Here, he was flowering, yet vintage. All hair and flair. Off to the races each time the ball arrived at his feet, not without first welcoming it with a warm caress, and of course quick to run rings around his poor chasers. The feints, twists and turns. The control. Everything was already there in bountiful amounts, but he was just 12.

Notice how a young Lionel Messi cleverly shimmies away from the opposition’s No. 5 at about 2:37 of the clip? But for the blast of the referee’s whistle to pull back for the far too obvious foul, the Rosario-born native was even through.

It helps that he had to inspire a comeback, scoring one of the goals with a cheeky swing on the ball with his wand for a left foot as La Lepra battled back to an emphatic 3-2 victory.

Now 36, Lionel Messi is regarded as one of the greatest footballers ever to play the game. But it turned out he was pretty good as a kid too! We just hope this highlight reel of a very young Messi laying waste to his mates in his budding years in Argentina is the best five minutes you enjoy today.