5 top-class footballers Lionel Messi has insulted over the years: Ramos, Milner…
We tend to think of Lionel Messi as a sort of quiet genius who does his talking on the pitch. Generally speaking, he kind of is, especially compared to his relatively more vocal old rival, Cristiano Ronaldo.
He’s not some shy little mouse that happens to be class at football, though. There’s a sh*thouse in Messi. A sh*thouse whale stirs within very soul of the goat, and sometimes it needs to come to the surface for air. Messi has mixed it with the hard lads just like we mixed our animal metaphors in those previous two sentences.
We’ve picked out five times the Rey de Rosario gave it the big ‘un with his fellow football pros and ex-players.
Wout Weghorst
The World Cup 2022 quarterfinal between Argentina and the Netherlands was one for the ages. It was aggressive enough to reach the threshold for the creation of its own Wikipedia page entitled ‘The Battle of Lusail’.
The Dutch had riled some of the Argentine players with comments to the press in pre-match interviews, saying they had a score to settle from previous meetings and that Messi did nothing without the ball, and Dutch keeper Andries Noppert saying he fancied himself against Messi if it went to penalties.
When Leo converted a 70th-minute penalty to make it 2-0 to Argentina, he celebrated by cupping his ears in front of the Dutch bench and Louis Van Gaal.
With about ten minutes left, the Netherlands brought on Wout Weghorst, who had already been booked for dissent from the bench, to put a massive lanky cat amongst the pigeons. The pigeons sh*t everywhere.
Wehgorst scored, Leandro Paredes absolutely c*nted the ball at the Dutch bench from point-blank range, there was an absolute melee, 10 minutes of added time, a 100th-minute equaliser from big Wout (again), and a penalty shootout, which Argentina won.
When being interviewed immediately after the match, Messi noticed Weghorst walking past him and said to him, in Spanish, “Que miras, bobo?”
That means, roughly, “What are you looking at, stupid/fool?”
We don’t know if big Wout speaks Spanish—probably not—but we do like que miras, bobo? as an insult. We’ll be using that going forward.
Sergio Ramos
During the 2017 Spanish Super Cup second leg (which Barca lost 2-0 to Real Madrid, and 5-1 on aggregate), Messi tried to get the ball off of Sergio Ramos to take a quick free kick. Obviously, Ramos, being an opponent and also a first class sh*thouse in his own right, held the ball out for Leo and then chucked it over his head at the last second.
Messi then apparently shouted, “La concha de tu madre” at Ramos. If your Spanish is a bit rusty, madre is ‘mother’, and concha is ‘shell’. Specifically a conch (obviously), the openings of which look a bit like… We’ll probably leave that one there, actually.
READ NEXT: 5 times Cristiano Ronaldo showed that Lionel Messi lives rent-free in his head
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to make the Ballon d’Or podium in Messi’s eight wins?
James Milner
Back in 2019, Liverpool produced one of the comebacks of the century when they clawed their way back from a 3-0 defeat at the Camp Nou to beat Barca 4-0 at Anfield and progress to the Champions League Final.
During that first leg, the Reds did their best to keep Messi quiet (unsuccessfully) when Andy Robertson gave him a little nudge in the back of the head, and James Milner bodied him into touch a couple of times. Leo did not take that well. Milner explained what happened to the Mail:
“He wasn’t happy. He was giving me plenty in Spanish going down the tunnel at half time as well. He was calling me ‘burro’. It translates as donkey but I think it’s also used in Spanish football as a general term for someone who goes around kicking people.”
James Milner speaks Spanish, purely because he enjoys learning, and so he asked Messi what was up, to which Leo responded, “That foul you did, that’s because I nutmegged you.” Referring to that infamous piece of skill that left Pep Guardiola agog in the stands back in 2015 when Milner was a Manchester City player.
And, do you know what? It probably was partly because of that, but what are you gonna do?
Aitor Karanka
In 2013, the Copa del Rey semifinal was an El Clasico between Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid and Tito Vilanova’s Barcelona. The first leg ended in a 1-1 draw, and then Los Blancos assistant manager Aitor Karanka must have done something to annoy Leo, because after the game, Messi apparently referred to Karanka as ‘Mourinho’s puppet’.
That’s according to then Real Madrid winger Jose Callejon, who told reporters at a press conference. What a grass. It must’ve spurred Real on, though, because they won the second leg 3-1 and progressed to the final (which they lost to Atletico).
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 15 international teams Lionel Messi hasn’t scored against?
Jamie Carragher
When Messi signed for PSG in 2021, Jamie Carragher was pretty vocal in his opinion that it was a bad move for the Argentinian, one which would have a negative impact on his career.
Turns out Leo Messi is a Monday Night Football viewer, and so he slid into Carragher’s DMs to call him a donkey, which is objectively funny.
Messi sent the message in Spanish so Carragher apparently wasn’t aware of that Messi had called him until Kate Abdo informed him… There’s absolutely no way Carragher wasn’t Google translating that—come off it.