Lisandro Martinez admits to giving 'Bobo' nickname to Man Utd teammate Wout Weghorst

Lionel Messi's remarks towards Wout Weghorst at last winter's World Cup are being used as a nickname for the Dutch striker at Manchester United.

Back in December, after a quarter-final clash that featured the most bookings in any game in World Cup history, an agitated Messi called out Weghorst for looking at him during a fiery post-match interview.

The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner referred to the Netherlands forward as a “bobo,” meaning silly, fool or idiot.

Soon, the heated exchange spilled over into the Lusail Stadium tunnel, where Weghorst could be seen arguing with Lisandro Martinez, who is now teammates with the 30-year-old at Old Trafford.

In fact, it appears Martinez has struck up a great relationship with Weghorst; a player that arrived on loan from Burnley in the January window.

Speaking to TyC Sports reporter Gastón Edul this week, the Argentine revealed his endearing nickname for the experienced striker.

"Here we are killing each other all the time, he takes it well!" Martinez laughed.

"I call him 'bobo' all the time as a joke, as do others. I would say to him 'good morning, bobo', I say 'bobo' to him, it's already like that and he takes it well, he's a good boy, we have a good vibes – and he is always laughing."

Touching on how Weghorst feels about that particular game, Martinez added: "He feels that he played the game of his life, but he always stresses to me about the people of Argentina, about the fans, about how they supported us. He said it was crazy."

Image credit: Alamy

Martinez clearly finds the incident between Messi and his United teammate entertaining, and it has been suggested that Weghorst does not mind the nickname either.

To his credit, Weghorst, who has become somewhat of a fav favourite at Old Trafford, took some positives from the spat with evential World Cup winner Messi.

“For me, everyone is the same in a match. I fight. That’s what I did in that match. I had some tense moments with Messi in the match and maybe he was surprised," he told En Son Haber.

"I respect him a lot, he’s one of the best ever. After the game I wanted to show Messi the respect I have for him, but he wasn’t very open to it. Now at least he has learnt my name.”

READ MORE:

• Piers Morgan attempted to call out Wout Weghorst 19 minutes into the Carabao Cup final, he ate his words

Topics: Manchester United, Wout Weghorst, Lisandro Martinez, Lionel Messi, Argentina, Netherlands, Football World Cup

Jack Kenmare

Senior Journalist at SPORTbible with a passion for long-form journalism. Almost 10 years’ experience across online and print.

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