During Argentina’s match against Paraguay, former Barcelona hopeful Antonio Sanabria allegedly spit at Lionel Messi, prompting the Inter Miami player to give the appropriate answer.
Former Barcelona teammate Antonio Sanabria was compelled to deny spitting at Lionel Messi after a strong response from the superstar.
Argentina beat their South American opponents 1-0 in World Cup qualification early Friday morning, while emotions were rising. With only five minutes remaining, Messi and Sanabria got into an altercation during which spit was aimed towards the back of Sanabria, who is 36 years old.
After the match, the Inter Miami player spoke up, and the 27-year-old, who spent five years in the Barcelona school and trained with Messi and the first squad, disputed that the spit was directed at the striker.
Messi fired back against TyC Sports by saying, “My teammates told me about it in the locker room.” It’s best not to pursue the matter further.
The seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or said “I don’t know who this guy is and I don’t want to give him importance either, because if he gets that he’s going to go out and talk everywhere and he becomes known.”
In reaction, Sanabria claimed that he hadn’t actually spit at Messi but rather in Messi’s general vicinity, with the camera angle exaggerating the incident.
After lengthy stints with Sassuolo, Roma, and Real Betis, Sanabria has thrived with Torino.
Messi has been a part of 29 national team games, scoring twice, and his country was just crowned World Cup champions in December.
The player who might have retired in Qatar but instead scored twice in Inter Miami’s narrow 1-0 triumph shows no signs of slowing down.
Despite Messi’s recent inactivity for his team, Lionel Scaloni decided to risk angering Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham by playing him off the bench.
The management stressed the need of practice for Leo before the game. We thought he was looking well, and we’ll have a chat before practice to decide whether or not he’ll be starting.
Having won their first three qualifying matches, Argentina now sits atop their 10-team group, with the top six teams qualifying automatically for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Up next for Argentina is a match versus Peru.