Messi played in Newell’s Old Boys’s youth team between 1994 and 1999. He was part of the 1987 team known as “The ’87 Machine”, coached by Ernesto Vecchio. He made his debut against Pablo VI on April 9th, in a match that Newell’s won 6-0 with four goals from Messi. The club received, among other titles, the Peruvian Friendship Cup in 1997, after scoring ten goals (nine by Messi) against Callao, and in 1998 won the Balcarce City tournament in Buenos Aires province, in which Messi scored fifteen goals in six games. In this period, Messi scored 234 goals, with an average of 1.32 per game. In an interview in 2014, Vecchio commented: “Seeing Leo play at such a young age was really impressive. One couldn’t believe (…) to see a kid with that virtue, that quality, and so small, little, doing so many things with the ball”.