What happened between Lewandowski and Messi?: history, confrontations, statements

Thursday, November 30 was the first anniversary of a match that paralyzed the football world. Argentina confronted Poland and both needed a good result to stay alive at the World Cup. In addition to the teams, there were two clear figures who built a common history: Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski.

After the albiceleste won 2-0, they faced each other four times. The first two times in the semi-finals of the 2015 Champions League, which Barcelona eventually won. In the first leg, Leo scored two great goals and immortalized the dribble against Boateng. In the second leg it was a 3-2 defeat for the Blaugranas and Lewandowski scored a goal. The next time they met it was a dark night for Messi: a historic 8-2 with just one goal from the Polish striker.

WHERE WAS THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN THEM BORN?

It all started when the magazine France football I decidedor cancel the 2020 awards ceremony due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pole was the clear favorite after a dream season.

Already in 2021, Leo Messi He settled in Paris and received his seventh golden ball there. He crowned his thanks with a message: “I want to tell Robert that it is an honor for me to fight with him. I think you deserve the Ballon d’Or, which everyone agreed last year you were the winner and I think France Football will give you the Ballon d’Or you have to give. Or that you deserve”.

Lewandowski Shortly afterwards he got his revenge, as he won the prize for the second time in a row. Best and he reached Cristiano Ronaldo as the footballers who have won that award the most. When the votes were announced, it was discovered that Leo did not vote for him. He decided to go for Neymar, Mbappé and Benzema.

The press could not escape the details and asked the striker what he thought about it. “Why didn’t Messi vote for me? Ask him. For the Ballon d’Or he chose me second, but now he has decided to vote in a different way.”. and closedor with a powerful sentence: “I can’t say much more about it. Yes, I can say I voted for him in second place.”

Although both were friendly in their comments, there was a tense calm in the atmosphere. The rivalry between fans on the networks continued to grow, much more so when the Qatar 2022 World Cup match was drawn in April and both Argentina and Poland found themselves in Group C (along with Mexico and Saudi Arabia).

Shortly afterwards, the Argentine star took a minute to respond to Lewa’s message in an interview with TyC Sports. “Let him say whatever he wants, I’m not interested”, he said he was downplaying the matter. He further continued: “The words I said at that moment came from my heart because I really felt that way. I said he deserved the Ballon d’Or before because I thought he was the best the year before, but the year I won wasn’t the best. “Thats what I said.”

In July, Lewandowski signed with Barcelona until 2026. It is a detail that added even more value to the cold war between the two. The Pole was very keen to leave Bayern Munich and join the culé team.

With all this history in tow, November arrived, the month of the World Cup. Said during the press conference on November 18 an Argentinian journalist asked him if he wanted to shake Leo’s hand in the match that concludes the group stage. The attacker became upset and noted that everything was fine with Messi.

A year later, already world champion with Argentina, Angel Di Maria He acknowledged that the pre-Poland process was special for Leo: “Even my grandmother realized that Messi deliberately confronted Lewandowski. They are things that remain in him, and that is how he speaks. They don’t respect him and don’t realize that he is the best player in history. “You don’t have to tell him anything because it will eventually turn on and it’ll be worse.”.