On August 17 2005, 18-year-old Leo Messi earned his first cap for Argentina.

The Barcelona teenage sensation made his debut for the Catalan giants in October 2004 and has never looked back.

Messi has since won five Ballon d'Or awards as well as a whopping total of 30 major trophies at the Camp Nou.

However, his international career has failed to deliver the same kind of success.

Argentina are in real danger of completely missing out on the 2018 Russia World Cup after they drew 0-0 with Peru on Thursday night.

Currently 6th in FIFA's South American qualifying group, Argentina need to win - or rely on other results going their way - away in Ecuador in their final group game.

In March of this year, Messi became the country's highest ever goalscorer by surpassing Gabriel Batistuta's record of 56.

However, the 30-year-old magician has failed to score since and has the weight of a nation on his shoulder's ahead of Tuesday night's showdown.

Messi's mad debut

Few football fans will remember Messi coming off the bench in an international friendly against Hungary in 2005.

But the game is famous for one reason - it remains the only time Messi was ever shown a red card in professional football.

The Barcelona wonderkid was given his marching orders by the referee just 40 seconds after replacing Lisandro Lopez in the 64th minute.

Being fouled immediately after receiving the ball, Messi naively threw a stray elbow at Vilmos Vanczak and gave the referee no choice but to send him off.

"He came through me and had hold of me and I wanted to break free," said Messi after the game. "But the referee interpreted it as though I had tried to shove him away.

"I went on with a lot of time left in the game, but then what happened, happened.

"It was not like I had dreamed it would be."

Captain of his country, Messi has played in four major international finals but is still yet to experience any kind of success with the national team.