I remember very well the first day that a small boy with long hair, who was very, very shy and could only play with his left foot, came to Barcelona. We were 13 and we were told he was from Argentina and that he was on trial.

In just the second training session with us, I found out how good Lionel Messi was one-on-one. Believe it or not, when I was little, I was quite good at tackling and nobody could get past me because I was quite aggressive.

The coach split us into pairs and he told me ‘listen, you can’t let this boy get past once. You have to kick him until he doesn’t want to play any more’. I was a bit surprised because we were only 13, but Leo was so small I did not think it was going to be any problem.

I was confident he was not going to get past me, but straight away he left me on the floor with his first go. It is something I will always remember, his one-on-one was amazing already at that age. I made sure I did the exercise with someone else after that.

But after a few days the boy had to go back to Argentina and we did not see or hear about Leo again for six months before he returned. He came back like a different boy, more secure, and he just kept improving.