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Lionel Messi hasn’t exactly enjoyed a fairytale year at Barcelona.
The football world has barely gotten over the shock of the six-time Ballon d’Or winner who declared his desire to leave Barça this summer, only to take a U-turn at the end of the day with clenched teeth.
Let’s face it, had it not been for the fact that Barcelona were prepared to take their star to court, Messi might as well have been hanging around the Premier League for Manchester City right now.
Hard year for Messi
Unfortunately that is not the case and Josep Maria Bartomeu has fallen to his sword, but that does not mean that there is sun and rainbow for Messi in Catalonia after a difficult start to the season.
Ronald Koeman is already feeling the heat with Barcelona finding themselves 12th in La Liga after just six games, while Messi has yet to register his first goal since open play in 2020/21.
Pretty rude, right? Well, things have gotten even tougher for Messi this week with Koeman’s predecessor Quique Setien, who decided to lay down just three months after being fired.
Messi publicly criticized
Setién did not hide the fact that he considered Messi difficult to handle and even referred to the Barça captain at the start if he could not bear the criticism.
Even if Setien did win that particular battle, he certainly didn’t win the war, but he can at least find comfort in the fact that he is definitely not the first soccer figure to publicly criticize Messi.
It’s a surprisingly difficult feat to accomplish when talking about one of the greatest athletes of all time, but we have found at least eight cases in which the Argentine has been criticized.
You can check out the case studies below and see if we thought they were justified or not:
1. Skin
It’s arguably the most iconic case of Messi hitting one of his rivals for GOAT status embarking on a strange spiel in 2018 that, spoiler alert, we think is comfortably off the mark.
Pelé himself told Folha de Sao Paulo: “How can you make a comparison between a guy who heads the ball well, shoots with his left, shoots with his right and another who only shoots with one leg, he only has one ability? and not”? head the ball well?
“How can you compare it? To compare with Pele, it has to be someone who shoots well with the left, shoots well with the right and scores with a header.”
Verdict: Come along. The only way you can consider Messi’s right foot and his bearing poor is to compare it to his left foot. That’s like criticizing LeBron James for not being Michael Jordan.
2. Hugo Gatti
Former Argentine goalkeeper Gatti did not hold back with his criticism of Messi earlier this year. telling El ChiringuitoAccording to Goal, the Barcelona star is no longer a ‘phenomenon’.
“Messi is a phenomenon, but he is no longer a phenomenon,” he commented. “They treat him badly because they make him bigger and bigger and treat him badly.
“He gets used to it and walks more on the pitch. He has to be better. Messi has to be better, he has gotten used to playing at a tired pace, walking and those who know football think the same. Take off, kid.” You have to play well.
“When there is a player like Messi, as it was with Maradona and Pelé, and his teammates always give him the ball to win the game.
“They spoil the team and they don’t put everything they have into it. The team gets used to giving the ball to him and to no one else ”.
Verdict: No, not for me. Sure, Messi has declined in recent years, that’s the age for you, but to say that someone on his way to 20 goals and assists in the league is not a “phenomenon” is simply wrong.
3. Luka Modric
A different type of criticism, this, because Modric did not criticize Messi for some deficiency on the field, but for not attending the 2018 Ballon d’Or ceremony, like Cristiano Ronaldo.
According to Eurosport, Modric told Sportske Novosti: “I can’t say why someone didn’t attend, that’s their choice. That’s logical, right?
“It turns out that … trophies are only valuable when they get them. It’s not fair to their fellow players, not fair to the voters who have nominated them for the past 10 years, or to soccer or the fans.
“But I repeat, everyone behaves the way they think they need to.”
Verdict: It’s quite difficult to disagree with Modric here, let’s be honest, because it was a bit disappointing that Ronaldo and Messi weren’t in the crowd to applaud the climactic moment of the Real Madrid star.
4. Diego Maradona
While Maradona, a former Messi’s coach, no less, has praised the Barca star many times, he has also thrown his fair share of criticism and that came to light explosively in October 2018.
Maradona said in an interview with Fox Sports: “We should not deify Messi any more. He is Messi when he plays for Barcelona. Messi is Messi when he wears that shirt and he is another Messi with Argentina.”
“He’s a great player, but he’s not a leader. It’s useless trying to make a leader from a man who goes to the bathroom 20 times before a game.”
Verdict: As much as I think it would be naive to dismiss all criticism of Messi’s leadership, I think we go a bit too far when we say that he needs to flee in the bathrooms during the big moments.
5. Daniel Passarella
Another example of a former Argentine hero sticking a knife into the star in contemporary attire with Passarella joining a long line of ex-professionals who claim Messi is a different player in international roles.
On Goal, Passarella said: “He is a great player who can give a lot to any team. But when he plays for Barcelona he has a different attitude. He is better there. Sometimes these things happen.
“You play well for a team and they love you, but you don’t feel comfortable and something doesn’t fit. I don’t know what it is, but it should be something you feel inside.”
Verdict: Thanks to Passarella because he has expressed this much better than some of his compatriots and there are good reasons to think that a lesser love for Messi in Argentina may have affected some of his performances.
6. Dani Alves
Quite a collector’s item because it’s quite rare for you to see Messi get attacked by a former teammate, but Alves clearly took offense at the Barca star’s spiel at the 2019 Copa América.
“A friend is not always right just because he is a friend. You can say it in the heat of the moment, but I still don’t agree,” Alves said cheekily to SporTV’s ‘Bem Amigos’.
“In the first place, it is disrespecting an institution like Selecao, in my opinion. Second, you are being disrespectful to various professionals who put a lot of things aside to be there fighting for a dream.
“I am a friend who always tells the truth when it is due, and I think he was wrong when he said these things.”
Verdict: Fair play with Alves for making his position known and although we should put a bit of salt since emotions were running low for Messi, speaking to the media in anger was probably a mistake.
7. Vicente Moreno
There are many fans who think that Messi behaves a little differently than an average player, but they are not alone because Real Mallorca coach Vicente Moreno took that angle of attack last year.
Marca quoted him saying: “There are some players who are in a bubble and you cannot reason with them. He is a different player in some aspects and then in other aspects he is a person like any other and you have to treat him.” as such.
“The referee was telling him that it was not a foul and he did not see it that way. There is no need to give it more importance than that.”
Verdict: To be honest, who wouldn’t be in a bubble when you’re one of the most recognizable people in the world? At the end of the day, I think Messi remains calm quite well.
8. Quique Setien
And that brings us to the comments that inspired the list with Setien giving a disturbing insight into Messi’s demeanor and mannerisms that the seven quotes above simply don’t offer.
Setién told El País: “Leo is difficult to handle. Who am I to change him! If they have accepted him as he is for years and have not changed him.
“There is another facet beyond the player and it is more difficult to handle. Much more difficult. It is something inherent in many athletes that can be seen in the Michael Jordan documentary (The Last Dance).
“You see things you don’t expect. He’s very reserved but he makes you see the things he wants. He doesn’t talk much.”
Verdict: It’s hard enough to argue with someone in the know, but as Setien alludes to with the Jordan comparison, it’s worth noting that the fact that Messi is “unwieldy” isn’t always necessarily negative.
Even Messi is criticized
So the next time you’re criticized, whether it’s at work, school, or socially, you can make sure that even one of the most talented athletes on the planet gets his fair share of teasing and teasing as well.
Of course, not all of them have been justified, we are looking at you, Pele, but even the best player of all time cannot play like the best player of all time … all the time. Do you follow?
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