Forty-seven seconds after debuting with the argentine national team, Lionel Messi was expelled. The referee German Markus Merk He showed the red card to the young forward in the friendly that Argentina played against Hungary on August 17, 2005 in the Ferenc Puskas stadium of Budapest. That acrylic went down in history, as did the milestones achieved by the For money with the albiceleste jacket (including the World Cup in Qatar) and in his club career. It was a milestone that confirmed the European as one of the “villain” judges for Argentina. Because it wasn’t the only chapter…
Messi, brand new 18 years old, entered for Lisandro López and, in his third contact with the ball, tried to get away from the mark of Vilmos Vanczákwho was holding him by the shirt. Messi swung lightly and the Hungarian defender fell excessively.
The referee sanctioned the action immediately: he cautioned Vanczák and sent Messi off with a direct red card. Messi’s teammates, among them Gabriel Heinze, Roberto Fabian Ayala, Juan Pablo Sorín, Hernan Crespo and himself Lionel Scalonithey surrounded the judge in a sign of surprise.
The For money He left the field crying, noticeably affected. He would later remember: “It was a very hard moment for me, I entered the locker room dead, crying”.
The discomfort reached the entire Argentine team. The selector Joseph Pekerman and his collaborators tried to console Messi, aware of the emotional impact of having been sent off in his first official match with the senior team.
Over the years, Messi built a historic career in football, while Vanczák retired in 2018 and worked as an assistant coach for the Hungarian U-21 team.
In 2005, Merk was recognized as the best referee in the worlda title he obtained in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Only Pierluigi Collina y Sandor PHUH They surpass that award history.
His career included directing matches at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, the 2002/03 Champions League final between Milan and Juventus, the Euro 2004 final in which Greece triumphed, and matches at the 2002 Korea/Japan and 2006 World Cups in Germany.
After Messi’s expulsion, referee and player only met once again on the pitch. It happened on March 7, 2006, in the Barcelona stadium against Chelsea in the Champions League. Messi had to leave the game after twenty-two minutes due to injury and, once again, left the field in tears.
Several years later, Merk himself analyzed the play that marked his career. He recognized that, seen in perspective, “I would have left it yellow”. He mentioned that when the OUR In football, he used that expulsion to discuss it with colleagues, most of whom considered that they would not have asked for a review of the original play.
But the German not only ruined a special moment for the albiceleste captain. He also did it with Scaloni. The sequence was evident in the official biography of the National Team coach, written by journalist Diego Borinsky.
In one of its chapters, the work evokes the 2004 Champions League, in which Deportivo La Coruña, an institution in which the Gringo He is an idol, he reached the semifinals. In that instance, they faced José Mourinho’s Porto, ultimately winner of the Orejona. The first leg, in Portugal, ended 0-0. The return leg, in Galicia, ended 1-0 for the visitors, thanks to a penalty goal from Derlei.
However, although the decisive setback occurred in Spain, two circumstances in the equality in Portuguese territory marked the series. “We tied there, but at the end of the game they sent off Jorge Andrade, who was one of our best centre-backs, and Mauro Silva got a yellow card and couldn’t play the revenge”the Argentine noted in the book Aldo doucher.
“We should have won a Champions League, the one that Leeds eliminated us and, above all, that of Porto,” added the Brazilian Mauro Silva. “I missed the revenge due to an accumulation of yellow cards and Andrade sent him off in the first leg for something stupid. Andrade was a friend of Deco, he kicked him in the tail as a joke and the German referee interpreted it as an attack. Only a German referee could have thought of something like that.” Who was the authority of that meeting? Good old Merk, who in two years had a negative impact on Messi and Scaloni.
Away from refereeing activity after his retirement in 2008, Merk developed a diverse professional life. As a dentist, he practices in Otterbach and has carried out humanitarian work in India, providing dental care to children and collaborating in the construction of homes and schools. He was distinguished with the Cross of Merit of Germany for its social commitment.
He has also dedicated himself to the beer business and is the author of two motivational books. Merk excels in endurance sports: he has run marathons, triathlons, practices mountaineering and participates in the Vasa Careerthe cross-country ski competition in Sweden. Last March, he completed a marathon in Rome and has climbed both the Himalaya as The Andes.
However, his life away from the whistle did not manage to remove the “villain” label for the Argentines. Not as much as Edgardo Codesalthe controversial judge of the Italy 90 World Cup final, or Nicola Rizzolithe one from the definition of Brazil 2014 that omitted Neuer’s penalty against Gonzalo Higuaín, but with enough weight to have stained two sensitive moments in the careers of Messi and Scaloni.
Related reading
