He may have won the Ballon D’Or seven times, but Lionel Messi truly met his match when he failed to convert a penalty against a robot goalkeeper.
The Argentina legend travelled to Qatar with his Paris Saint Germain teammates to visit the country’s Olympic Museum this week. During a press event, Messi was tasked to face a machine powered goalkeeper from the penalty spot.
Having scored 764 goals in his phenomenal career and having beaten some of the best goalkeepers the world has ever seen, the expectations were that Messi would find the back of the net with ease when up against the robot, however, things didn’t quite turn out like that.
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Messi stepped up in his club gear like he normally would, left footed, and aimed towards the top right corner. But the robot goalkeeper read the Argentinian’s mind and produced a great save to deny Messi.
Messi laughed off his miss instantly but surrounding fans were slightly stunned into silence after seeing their idol fail to convert a penalty against a piece of machinery.
Rival fans were quickly onto Messi’s case, taking to social media to mock the former Barcelona man.
One fan said: “EVEN WITH ROBOT HE STILL CAN’T SCORE”, another fan wrote “ Messi is missing pens against robots now, he’s truly finished”.
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Messi brushed off the penalty disappointment and was seen later on signing shirts and posing for pictures as he continued to be involved in a wide range of activities.
Since moving to PSG, Messi has been under intense scrutiny, with many fans around the world intrigued to see whether Messi can perform outside of the Spanish league, where he had spent his entire career before making the move to Paris.
This season, Messi endured one of his worst, managing only six Ligue 1 goals and 13 assists but managed to play a part in helping PSG regain the French title. His team’s Champions League campaign were cut well short after falling to finalist Real Madrid in the last 16.
Messi will be looking for a much improved 22/23 season.
Topics: Lionel Messi, Paris Saint-Germain
Marcus Chan