Lionel Messi 'clashed' with current Barcelona star after he got on the wrong side of him

Lionel Messi is known to be a quite and assuming person who lets his football do the talking but on occasion the Argentine legend does lose his cool.

He was full of anger with Wout Weghorst and the Netherlands national team at the 2022 World Cup quarter-final in Qatar but he has also got into it with one of his former Barcelona teammates.

Having come through the famed La Masia academy, Messi scored an incredible 672 goals in 778 appearances for the Barca first-team - as well as supplying 303 assists.

Messi captained the club before leaving for Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer in 2021 and current Barca goalkeeper Marc Andre Ter Stegen has opened up on his experiences in the same dressing room as the footballing icon.

The German recently sat down with BILD for a wide-ranging interview and revealed that he and Messi have had moments where they did not see eye to eye.

However, he did stress that the disagreements never turned into angry episodes.

"We've had both," Ter Stegen said when asked if they shared good or bad moments together.

"Leo is a special character who is at this level because he draws motivation from many things we don't see, I think. We also had moments where things didn't work out between us because he was upset with me and I was upset with him."

He added: "But not at all angry in the sense that it was drawn out or anything. Leo is simply a super impressive character on the pitch, and he plays with a lightness that will never be seen again, I'm 100 percent sure of that. He has the ability: if he wants to make you look bad, he does it with such ease, and with a pass or a shot that you'll say afterwards: That was impossible! And I've experienced that before. And that's why I'm also glad to have always had him with me in games and not on the other side."

Lionel Messi and Marc Andre Ter Stegen had ups and downs. Image: Getty

Ter Stegen reveals what Messi is really like behind the scenes

Despite being a captain for club and country, Messi is not renowned for being an extremely vocal presence in the style of old school leaders.

However, while Ter Stegen said Messi "isn't a loudmouth", he revealed that teammates had no issue listening and following him whenever he spoke.

Ter Stegen continued: "We never had arguments in the sense that you'd say we didn't get along at all. But we had moments, and that's fine. We were in a locker room together for a long time, and it was definitely interesting to have him on the team and to see how he leads. Whether that's my style or not, it was interesting to see. Leo isn't a loudmouth; he works a lot with presence and needs to say relatively little, really.

"And when he does say something, everyone listens. And that's what you really want to achieve as a captain: for people to listen to you and follow you."

Ter Stegen is the current captain at Barcelona but has played just seven times this season after rupturing his patellar tendon against Villarreal in September.

The former Borussia Monchengladbach shotstopper was ruled out for the full campaign, leading to former Arsenal and Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny coming out of retirement.