Football legend Lionel Messi was given an outrageous welcome back to his boyhood club Newell's Old Boys in hometown Rosario on Saturday night.

On his 36th birthday, the Argentina captain and soon-to-be Inter Miami forward was in attendance at the Estadio Marcelo Bielsa for the farewell party of his close friend Maxi Rodriguez.

As shown in footage from Sportscenter in his homeland, Messi is given a lengthy introduction by an MC while shown calmly talking to others in the changing room.

The stadium is in darkness save for the cell phone lights of the fans, who start to get excited when the MC mentions that the next guest is present on his birthday and and put two and two together.

Expectation builds as the announcer explains that the guest is "back in his house", and he is referred to by his nickname "La Pulga" ("The Flea") ahead of being properly named in full.

"The Champion" and "the most Argentine of Argentines" then starts to make his way out of the locker room and down a flight of stairs as some fireworks are left off.

Then as he comes on to the pitch, pandemonium ensues and one part of the stadium turns into a sea of red flares and pyrotechnics.

Messi waves to the fans, who sing at the top of their lungs to welcome back the "Prodigal Son" as SportsCenter described him - the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner who left Newell's as a shy 13-year-old for FC Barcelona to rewrite the history of European football.

As another piece of footage shows, the stadium also sang Happy Birthday to the World Cup winner.

In a quick pitchside interview as the fans continued to bellow terrace chants, Messi noted that it was his first birthday as a world champion and that it is "always beautiful" to be back in Rosario where the people were always "so affecionate" with him.

Then pulling on his Argentina kit for Rodriguez's tribute match, Messi scored a wonder free kick within a matter of minutes.

Granted it wasn't as quick as the fastest goal of his career earlier this month against Australia in Beijing, but already hitting the back of the net within three minutes and 40 seconds is impressive nonetheless.

Free from his Paris Saint-Germain contract in five days' time, Messi can officially join Inter Miami the next day on July 1 and then plan his North American debut in the coming weeks.