At 65, Ernesto Vecchio passed away earlier on Friday in his house in Rosario, known for being Lionel Messi's first ever football coach at Newell's Old Boys.

The Argentine manager worked for Newell's for 28 years and a Messi-led youth team won two championships under his watch.

"Even before he got to Newell's, everybody was talking about the talent of a little kid who played for Abanderado Grandoli," Vecchio said of him at the time.

"I remember an instance when he took the ball on our own side of the pitch, he dribbled by everybody, took it around the keeper and then stopped because the goalkeeper had gotten injured.

"My eyes couldn't believe what they saw."