Featured Image Credit: Captains of the World via Netflix
Topics: Football, Lionel Messi, Wout Weghorst, Football World Cup, Qatar, Argentina, Netherlands
Chris Byfield
Topics: Football, Lionel Messi, Wout Weghorst, Football World Cup, Qatar, Argentina, Netherlands
New footage has shown what Lionel Messi did to Wout Weghorst after a furious altercation between the pair.
Argentina’s victory over the Netherlands in last year’s World Cup was among the most memorable and ill-tempered affairs of the entire tournament.
The game, which saw 15 yellow cards brandished by Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz, went to penalties after finishing 2-2 in normal time following a dramatic Weghorst equaliser.
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After Argentina claimed a memorable penalty victory, Messi was spotted arguing with Dutch boss Louis van Gaal and his assistant Edgar Davids before turning to Weghorst and shouting in his native Spanish: "What are you looking at bobo (fool)? Get back there."
The comment led to Weghorst being affectionately named “Bobo” by his Manchester United team-mates during a six-month loan spell at Old Trafford.
But new footage from Netflix’s ‘Captains Of The World’, a docuseries that takes the audience behind the scenes of the Qatar tournament, shows that in the tunnel and away from media Messi snubbed Weghorst's hand-shake and completely ignored the Dutchman.
Footage then cuts to a scene of Weghorst explaining to Sergio Aguero and several of Argentina’s players: “I was waiting for him (Messi) as I wanted to give him a hand (handshake).” Messi is also filmed shouting at the Netherlands striker, though the altercation is completely bleeped out.
Messi admitted after the altercation that he is not proud of losing his cool.
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"I don't like what I did," Messi reflected in January via the Mirror. "I don't like the 'keep moving' and all that. But well, they are moments of huge tension and huge nervousness and everything happens very fast.
"One reacts the way one reacts, but nothing was planned. It just happened. I don't like to leave that image, but these are things that happen."
Messi went on to inspire Argentina to their first World Cup victory since 1986 in Qatar - a feat that saw the Inter Miami star pick up his record-extending eight Ballon d’Or at a ceremony in Paris earlier this year.