DENVER — It got Messi at the end. For a few minutes, Empower Field 2026 was Shea Stadium 1965, as youngsters blitzed through security to be near Lionel Messi the way your grandma once did to get a closer look at Paul McCartney.

A grade-schooler stormed the field just after Messi, the Argentinian midfielder with the magic left foot, had fled the Colorado Rapids’ 3-2 loss. Then another. And another.

A young man in an FC Barcelona shirt made it the longest, twisting and shouting past security for about 50 seconds, breaking at least four ankles inside the 18-yard box before being hauled down to the turf. We counted at least five field-stormers in all, scamps to the last.

“I work at a school, and I see kids with Messi’s shirt in every classroom,” Claudia Hendricks said. “And I told them, ‘I’m from the same town,’ and people say, ‘Really?’ And they want to touch me. It’s weird.”

Hendricks has called Boulder home for decades. But Claudia, you see, actually hails from Messi’s hometown of Rosario, Argentina. Her sister still lives 2 miles from the legend’s house in Funes Hills, known locally as “The Fortress.” It’s a 10-minute drive down the road. They see it, from afar, every Christmas. Small world.

“We drive by it every day (during the holidays) to see if we can see him,” Hendricks told me outside Empower on Saturday, just before the Rapids hosted Messi’s current club, Inter Miami, for their 30th anniversary match and Messi’s Colorado debut.

“Sometimes, they say, ‘Oh, he’s getting ice cream in this place,’ so we all go over there.”

“Is he ever there?” I wondered.

A grin.

“No, but he owns a bar in Rosario, so we go there sometimes with the hope of seeing him.”

“So is he ever there?” I asked.

Another grin.

“No. I haven’t met him … but I was thinking, if I scream, ‘Messi,’ and I name his neighborhood, that he will look at me anyway.”

To most Americans, No. 10 is the guy who pops up on your television during World Cup years to hawk potato chips or Pepsi products. To Hendricks and her fellow Argentinians, he’s Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Tom Brady and LeBron James, all rolled into one. The GOAT’S GOAT.

Since 1956, a footballer has been presented with the Ballon d’Or, the Heisman Trophy of world soccer. Messi, now 38, has won it on eight different occasions — including four in a row from 2009-2012. No one else has received it more than five times.

“I don’t think that Michael or LeBron move 70,000 people into a single stadium for a single game,” Sergio Martinez of Lakewood, a Buenos Aires native, opined before the match.

“Messi is … a feeling,” Silvina Irimia, another Buenos Aires native, now of Aurora, continued. “He’s like (Diego) Maradona … there’s nothing like him.

“Argentina is a feeling. That’s what we say. Argentina no lo entenderias.”

Translation: “Argentina, you wouldn’t understand it.”

Then again, when 75,824 people show up for a soccer match during a Nuggets playoff game and a Rockies-Dodgers weekend, you start to understand plenty.

Messi turns 39 in June. It’s presumed that this summer will be his final run with the Argentinian national team in the World Cup. His Inter Miami contract runs through 2028. In a sport with no scoreboard clock, Messi’s clock is ticking.

There were more No. 10 jerseys at Empower Saturday than in half of the Broncos’ home games last fall. Claudia’s son, Elias, owns at least four Messi shirts, at last count. He wore his Argentina replica look on Saturday. He cried when the Argentines lost to Germany in the ’06 World Cup. He still rates Argentina’s 2022 World Cup win as sweeter than the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 victory and the Avalanche and Nuggets’ titles in ’22 and ’23, respectively. And he loves his Broncos, Avs and Nuggets.

“(Denver is) a bit of a humble city, I’d say,” Elias noted. “So it’s really cool to have all that greatness in here.”

And talk about greatness. Messi on Stadium Circle. Shohei Ohtani on Blake. Nikola Jokic on Speer. Do you realize that for one Saturday in the Front Range, Denver hosted the best soccer player in the world, the best basketball player in the world, and the best baseball player on the planet — all shining within four hours and 3 miles of one another?

Yet Messi outdrew them all. Half an hour into the first half, the upper deck resembled something of an Easter quilt, seats alternating between Argentina blue and Miami hot pink. Only a few empty seats lingered in Empower’s nooks and crannies. An announced crowd of 75,000 more than passed the eye test.

Elias’ eyes were a bit tired after trying to track down Messi downtown on Friday. He drove slowly past Denver’s finest hotels, thinking he might catch a glimpse of all that, ya know, greatness.

“He doesn’t come out very much in Argentina. He gets swarmed,” the younger Hendricks said. “I thought I might have a better chance out here.”

Nada. Braved the snow, though.

“I’m sure (Messi) landed and went, ‘What is this?’ ” Elias laughed. “(I’d tell him), ‘No, no, in two hours, it’ll all be gone.’ But just to have him in the city of Denver is so exciting. I’ve loved him for so long. And I’m in Rosario all the time. Just to think, does he know that somebody from Colorado is in the same town as him (in Argentina) every year?”

He does now. And while the Rapids were celebrating their 30th birthday, it didn’t take long for Messi to ruin the party.

Some 19 minutes into the match, the Rapids’ Josh Atencio was whistled for a tripping call in the Miami box that was so soft, a toddler could’ve slept on it.

Even after a video review, the ref pointed to the spot anyway. Messi, the master, strode to center stage, as if on cue. Colorado keeper Zack Steffen waved, stretched both arms high, feinted right and dove hard to his left. No. 10 rolled it coolly across the grass Steffen had just vacated. All the goalie could do was watch, prone, as Inter Miami took a 1-0 lead.

Trailing 2-0 at the halftime break, the birthday boys fought back to make it 2-2 midway through the second stanza. But in the 80th minute, Messi struck again.

The main attraction supported an Inter Miami break along the right wing, eventually isolating Rapids defender Lucas Herrington, 1-on-1, in the back of the box. Messi stutter-stepped without ever losing stride or pace, set himself and fired with that laser left foot into the top left corner of the net. His line drive hissed past a leaping Steffen for a 3-2 Miami lead.

“His grandma is still in the same house,” Claudia laughed. “Same humble house where she lived all her life.”

Same humble legend. No lo entenderias. Messi celebrated the winning goal in the arms of his teammates, another stadium conquered, with a smile anyone could understand.

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