He went to La Masia to train as a child and has dual nationality of Spain and Argentina, but he chose to play for Argentina.

At the 2003 World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates, Argentines did not know the name Messi, and the national youth team coach Tokali did not call him into the team. Once, a Spanish youth team coach accidentally said when chatting with Tokali: "Why didn't Messi play for Argentina? If he was Spanish, it would be wonderful." After hearing this, Tokali After a long silence, he began to secretly formulate a strategy to prevent Messi from becoming a Spaniard.

After the World Youth Championship, Tokali immediately found the video tape sent to him by Messi’s father, Jorge Messi, watched it, and then immediately called Jorge and asked him to tell Messi first. Don't be impatient. In May 2004, the Argentine Football Association sent a letter to Barcelona, ??hoping that they would allow Messi (the Argentine Football Association still spelled it wrongly as Mecci at the time) to participate in the training camp of the National Youth Team in June. Due to playing in the Copa del Rey, Barcelona rejected this request.

Afterwards, Tokali heard that the Spanish Football Federation had approached Messi to communicate with him about becoming a Spanish national. Tokali immediately proposed to the Argentine Football Association to arrange a national youth game, with the purpose of allowing Messi to play for Argentina. This time Messi returned to the team as scheduled. In 2005, Messi became famous at the World Youth Championship in the Netherlands, and successfully established himself in the Barcelona first team. He was also selected for the Argentina national team. Argentina finally avoided losing a talent.