7 big name footballers who’ve had beef with Lionel Messi: Ronaldo, Lewandowski…

Former Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and PSG stars are among the high-profile names who have had beef with Lionel Messi over the years.

While Messi often likes to let his football do the talking, he has been involved in a number of different bust-ups throughout the years.

We’ve gone back through Messi’s career and have found seven superstars that have had beef with the Argentine playmaker.

Cristiano Ronaldo

While Messi often lets the football do the talking, Ronaldo has fired a number of jibes at him over the years.

Perhaps the most memorable insult came after Messi won the 2021 Ballon d’Or. Ronaldo clearly wasn’t happy about his fierce rival winning the award so he took to social media to voice his displeasure.

Shortly after Messi was announced as the winner, Ronaldo commented ‘factos’ on an Instagram post that claimed Messi didn’t deserve to win.

CR7 continues to throw the odd indirect jibe at Messi every now and again, but the Inter Miami star rarely offers a response.

For example, shortly after Messi’s move to Inter Miami was confirmed, Ronaldo told reporters that the “Saudi league is better than MLS.”

Robert Lewandowski

After the Ballon d’Or was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewandowski ended up in a war of words with Messi.

The Argentine playmaker collected the award in 2021 and publicly pleaded for Lewandowski to be honoured for his efforts in 2020.

However, the Polish forward described Messi’s gesture as “empty words” and the pair then clashed when they met at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“Lewandowski’s statement in 2021 bothered me because when I won the Ballon d’Or I said what I really felt,” Messi told ESPN after Argentina played Poland.

“I ignored him during the game because it was him and I was angry and thought he shouldn’t have said what he said. I was very angry. Was I deliberately dribbling because it was him? Yes.

“After that we met and talked and agreed that it was a misunderstanding. He was upset because what he said didn’t match what was reported.

“Then he went to Barcelona and we talked about many things about the club, the city and everything.”

Edinson Cavani

Cavani had a bust-up with Messi when Uruguay faced Argentina in an international friendly back in 2019.

At the time, it was reported that Cavani offered to fight Messi after a scuffle had broken out. Messi reportedly replied by saying “whenever you want” before Luis Suarez came in and acted as the peacemaker.

After the game, Cavani played down the spat and insisted that it’s part of football in South America.

“It’s part of football, Clasicos are like this,” Cavani told TyC Sports.

“The truth is that it was at times a game that had friction, there were challenges and things that are part of football, especially of South American [football].”

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Pepe

The former Real Madrid star took aim at Messi and the whole of Argentina after Portugal were knocked out of the 2022 World Cup.

The Portuguese defender took issue with the Argentine referee who officiated their game against Morocco and also aimed a dig at Messi in the process.

“It’s unacceptable for an Argentine referee to referee our game,” Pepe told Portuguese outlet SIC.

“After what happened yesterday, with Messi talking, all of Argentina talking and the referee comes here to blow the whistle.

“I can bet that Argentina will be champions.”

Rodrygo

Messi had a heated exchange with Rodrygo when Argentina played Brazil in November last year.

According to TyC Sports, the Real Madrid winger accused Messi and his teammates of being “cowards” after Messi had threatened to take his side off the pitch due to violence in the crowd.

Messi bit back at Rodrygo’s comment and replied by saying: “We are the world champions, why are we cowards? Watch your mouth.”

Jamie Carragher

Messi didn’t take kindly to Carragher’s comments claiming that PSG couldn’t win the Champions League with a front three of Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

According to Carragher, Messi sent him a DM on Instagram calling him a donkey. In fairness to Carragher, he did see the funny side of the message.

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Wout Weghorst

Argentina’s clash with the Netherlands at the 2022 World Cup will live long in the memory. Given how heated things got between the sides, it’s no surprise that emotions started to boil over after the game.

While Messi was being interviewed after the match, he caught eyes with Weghorst and said: “Que miras, bobo?” Which roughly translates to: “What are you looking at, idiot?”

Weghorst then had a heated exchange with Lisandro Martinez and Lautaro Martinez when trying to explain his version of events.

“I was waiting for him and wanted to give him a hand,” Weghorst said. “And he’s doing that? That’s disrespectful.”