Five times Lionel Messi proved that he is human
Whenever one thinks of the ‘God’ of football, only one name comes to mind – Lionel Messi. Over the past decade or so, Messi has absolutely dominated the game, and is considered to be far above all other players, but exactly how far above is the question?
While most fans believe that he is superhuman, if not the almighty spirit, there are instances when he has shown that he is just like us. We have put together five incidents which prove that Messi is, in fact, just another mere mortal.
#1 Physical altercation with a Roma defender
While Messi is considered to be one of the calmer minds on the pitch, there was one occasion that he lost his temper in a pre-season friendly against Roma.
On the 5th of August 2015, Barcelona took on AS Roma in the Joan Gamper trophy. In the 35th minute, Messi got into an altercation with Roma defender Mapou Yanga Mbiwa, and the verbal argument culminated with the Argentine choking and headbutting the French national.
Had this incident happened in a competitive game, it would have certainly resulted in the Argentine being sent off, but given the friendly nature of the match, Messi continued to play and scored within seven minutes of the squabble.
That match was one of the few times we saw the dark side of the 29-year-old, and it’s safe to say that an angry Messi is far more dangerous than the one we are accustomed to seeing.