Lionel Messi ‘wanted to kill me’ – Leandro Paredes
FT Desk
- 19 Jun 2022 16:25 BST
- 3 min read
Leandro Paredes has revealed how Lionel Messi was so angry that he “wanted to kill me” during a Champions League match last year.
Paredes and Messi are now teammates at PSG after the latter left Barcelona on a free transfer last summer.
Related articles
But during the 2020-21 season, Messi’s Barcelona played Paredes’ PSG in the Champions League last-16.
PSG eliminated Barca, thrashing them 4-1 at Camp Nou in the first leg.
And Paredes has revealed that the red mist descended on Messi after Paredes made an off-hand comment to a PSG teammate.
What did Paredes say?
“He got angry, because I had made a comment to my team-mates and he heard me, and he got angry,” Paredes (pictured below) told Caja Negra before revealing that no grudges were held after the game.
“He became really angry. He f***ed me up. It was bad. He wanted to kill me and I wanted to go home.
“Afterwards I saw him in the national team and he acted as if nothing had happened.
“He showed me what he is like as a person. The relationship continued as it was.
“'Now, when the conversation comes up, we talk about it and laugh, but he was really angry at the time - he wanted to kill me!”
Messi endured a rather disappointing first season at PSG, despite the club wining Ligue 1.
Having broken virtually every record during over 20 years at Camp Nou, scoring an incredible 672 goals in 778 games, he failed to reach those heights in Paris.
He scored just six Ligue 1 goals and performed poorly in the Champions League as PSG crumbled to Real Madrid in the last-16.
Messi’s form improved towards the end of the season and he rolled back the years for Argentina in their June internationals.
He scored five goals in one game against Estonia and was inspired as Argentina beat Italy 3-0 at Wembley.
