Lionel Messi spent two decades playing Spanish soccer, representing FC Barcelona. During his time, he posed a constant challenge to fellow La Liga clubs, most prominently Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. The Argentine icon trailblazed for the Catalans, leading them to glory, particularly in Spain.
Messi’s statistics reflect his sheer dominance over the opposition, leading many opponents to coin derogatory nicknames for him in the dressing room. Another revelation on this matter has surfaced from Filipe Luis, the former Atletico Madrid full-back, who exposed Diego Simeone for his remarks.
Filipe Luis reveals Diego Simeone’s nickname for Lionel Messi
The World Cup winner, Lionel Messi, presented such challenges that opponents resorted to giving him unique nicknames in evident frustration. His skills were so elusive that defenders struggled to keep track of him on the pitch.
Additionally, Messi, alongside his formidable trio of Suarez and Neymar, formed the dominant MSN attacking trio during that period.
Similarly, Filipe Luis, the former Brazilian defender who played for Atletico Madrid, shared insights into his struggles in marking Messi while defending. He meticulously studied Messi’s matches from 2006 to 2016 to prepare for the challenge of stopping him on the field. However, his efforts mostly went in vain.
The defender has also admitted that the Argentine was by far the best player he had faced in his career. Making shocking claims on the Charla Podcast, he revealed how his former boss Diego Simeone used to refer to Messi as “El nano” while instructing on how to stop him.
He revealed, “At Atleti, Simeone put four players on Messi! So when he scored, it was not one player’s fault, it was just Messi. Before the games against Barcelona, Simeone never used Messi’s name. He always called him ‘the dwarf’, so when we were in front of him, we would not be afraid of him.”
Moreover, it was earlier revealed by a renowned Spanish journalist that Cristiano Ronaldo used to refer to Lionel Messi in the same manner.
How many times has Lionel Messi scored against Diego Simeone’s team?
Despite the Atletico Madrid boss devising advanced tactics and deploying a minimum of four defenders to mark the former Barcelona talisman in an attempt to stop him, Lionel Messi’s excellence consistently got the better of such efforts.
Messi played numerous times against the Rojiblancos and single-handedly propelled his side to victory. Overall, he scored 32 goals against Diego Simeone’s managed side in a total of 42 matches, marking them as one of his favorite teams to play against.
Nonetheless, Atletico Madrid is still managed by Simeone, who has been in charge of the club since 2011, over a decade ago. Currently, his team stands in 4th place in La Liga. In contrast, La Pulga is now rubbing shoulders in MLS, delivering top-notch performances at 36.
