Lionel Messi made his Barcelona debut 15 years ago against Jose Mourinho's Porto

It was exactly 15 years ago and it was only 15 minutes, but football would never be the same again.

On November 16, 2003, a young Lionel Messi came off the bench for Barcelona to make his first-team debut in a pre-season friendly against Jose Mourinho’s Porto.

The match was organised to mark the inauguration of the Estadio do Dragao in Porto, which had been built as part of the preparations for Euro 2004 the following summer.

A 16-year-old Messi came on for defender Fernando Navarro with a quarter of an hour to go and immediately showed his skills with a trademark run. Later, he found himself through on goal, but opted to pass instead of shooting.

“I went out to try to do as well as I could and to try to score a goal,” he said later. “I didn’t see at the time how much space I had, and I should have shot.”

There was also another opportunity after that as the ball got caught up under his feet on a poor pitch and he could do nothing to prevent a 2-0 defeat for Frank Rijkaard’s side, which was made up largely of second-string players but did feature Xavi, Luis Enrique and Rafa Marquez.

However, the Argentine had made his mark and Rijkaard said: “He only had 15 minutes, but he played really well and he had two chances to score. The future he has is promising.”

That seems like a huge understatement now. And since making his competitive debut 11 months later in a derby against Espanyol, Messi has more than made up for the chances he missed that night, going on to score an amazing 566 times in 650 senior games for the Catalan club.

Many of the most memorable ones have come against Real Madrid, including a number with Mourinho on the bench for Barca’s biggest rivals between 2010 and 2013.

Even Mourinho was not a household name back in 2003, his greatest successes coming in the following years. The five-time Ballon d'Or has gone to win over 30 trophies with Barcelona and is considered by many to be the greatest footballer in the history of the game.

Nobody knew it at the time, but for 15 minutes on that poor pitch in a low-key friendly in Portugal 15 years ago today, the Argentine began to write one of football's most special and sensational stories