The completion of the first anniversary of Argentina’s historic Qatar World Cup campaign highlights their captain Lionel Messi as the architect of this remarkable achievement. Acknowledging his brilliant performance exactly a year ago, he was crowned the best player of the tournament.
Besides La Albiceleste’s triumph, there are numerous moments from last year’s World Cup campaign to recall, one of which includes the intense post-match talk between the Argentine icon Lionel Messi and the Polish international star forward Robert Lewandowski after their group stage encounter.
Are Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski friends?
The former Barcelona legend admitted to attempting to humiliate Robert Lewandowski during the World Cup clash between Argentina and Poland in the Group C fixture. The match ended in Argentina’s favor as they secured a 2-0 victory over the European opposition.
While recalling the instance, Lionel Messi openly admitted that he was really upset with the current Barcelona striker Lewandowski’s comments, which led him to deliberately ignore the Pichichi winner from the 2022-23 season following his remarks on Messi’s Ballon d’Or win.
However, he also clarified that they both have talked about it, resolved the feud, and are currently on good terms.
Messi spoke to ESPN Argentina, stating, “I ignored him during the game because it was him, and I was angry, thinking he shouldn’t have said what he said. I was very angry.”
“After that, we met, talked, and agreed that it was a misunderstanding. He was upset because what he said didn’t match what was reported. Later, when he came to Barcelona, we discussed many things about the club, the city, and everything.”
What happened between Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski?
The rift in relations between the stars started when Lionel Messi won the seventh Ballon d’Or award in 2021. On the other hand, Robert Lewandowski was on the verge of joining Barcelona to fill the gap left by Messi’s departure from Camp Nou a season ago.
Lewandowski had an earlier phenomenal treble-winning season with Bayern Munich, but unfortunately, the Ballon d’Or ceremony was canceled that year due to the Covid-19 outbreak. However, in the subsequent year, he found himself once again in contention alongside Lionel Messi, who edged past him to further extend his French Golden Ball tally.
In his winning speech, Messi said, “Robert, you deserve your Ballon d’Or. Last year, everyone was in agreement to say that you were the big winner of this award.”
To this, Lewandowski responded, questioning the sincerity of his words, saying, “I’m not that enthusiastic about getting the 2020 award. I would like it to be a sincere and courteous statement from a great player and not just empty words.”
The verbal exchange between these two, sparked by the Polish striker’s response to Messi’s appreciation, resulted in a misunderstanding. Thankfully, as asserted by the World Cup winner, they have successfully resolved the issue. Additionally, Lewandowski believes that his statements were misconstrued.
