It seems the El Clasico rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid is felt strongly by the players, even after leaving the clubs. Spanish and Real Madrid goalkeeping legend Iker Casillas seems to have that same sentiment, as he recently put some shade on the achievement of Barcelona great Lionel Messi.
Messi recently won FIFA’s The Best award, ahead of the likes of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe. Many fans, including Casillas himself, believe that the award was undeserved for Messi, and now fans have called him out.
Iker Casillas throws shades at Lionel Messi’s FIFA Best Player award win
Lionel Messi was tied in the initial voting round with Erling Haaland but won the award by votes from national team captains. Many felt that the Argentine should not have won it, as he left Europe for the MLS, and he only won the Ligue 1 and Leagues Cup trophies. It was clear to many that Haaland, who scored the most goals as Manchester City won the treble, was the deserving candidate.
Iker Casillas, who had a long illustrious career as a goalkeeper for both Real Madrid and Spain, also felt that the award never should have been given to Messi. He shared his opinion subtly on his X account, “You create some nice prizes and you are taking them away by not doing things fairly. ‘The Smile’ more like. Anyway, good night!”
Creas unos premios bonitos y te los estás cargando a base de no hacer la cosas con justicia. “The Smile” más bien. En fin, buenas noches!
— Iker Casillas (@IkerCasillas) January 16, 2024
In recent days, many fans have accused governing bodies such as FIFA and the Ballon d’Or authority for unfairly awarding awards to Messi. They believe that Haaland deserved to win both awards, and that the voting system is rigged for the Argentine maestro to win. While there is no proof of this, it seems fans and even legends like Casillas seem to strongly believe in it. It is important to note that The Best award is voted jointly by fans, journalists, national team coaches and captains as well, so the award can be considered fair in a way.
Fans remind ex-Madrid star about his record against Messi
Fans of Lionel Messi however have decided to hit back at Iker Casillas, deciding to remind the goalkeeper about a certain incident. When Messi had scored his 644th goal for Barcelona and created history by becoming the player with the most goals by a player for a single club, Budweiser decided to pay tribute in a unique and creative way.
The beer company decided to send personalized beer bottles to every goalkeeper who has conceded a goal against Messi, and the number of bottles was factored to the amount of goals a goalkeeper has conceded against him.
Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas will be getting 17 bottles of beer this Christmas, after Budweiser sent out 644 bottles to every goalkeeper Lionel Messi had scored against while playing for Barcelona 🍺 pic.twitter.com/5mS9AtrJwm
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 25, 2020
Iker was a constant presence in the prime years of El Clasico, and as such Messi faced him quite a lot of times and even scored against multiple times. In fact, the Argentine had scored 17 goals against him, and Casillas received that amount of beer bottles. This hilarious incident was brought to attention by many fans to be the reason why Casillas is so concerned about Messi winning the award.
Iker Casillas is clearly fuming at both the decision to award Messi the award, and the many goals and beer bottles he received from him.
