“I don’t even know who that guy is” -Messi’s response after being spit at
Lionel Messi came off the bench for Argentina’s World Cup Qualifier win over Paraguay and was seemingly spit at by Antonio Sanabria, but he shrugged it off.
Lionel Messi was benched for most of Argentina’s World Cup Qualifier against Paraguay on Thursday after dealing with an injury that kept him out for four games with his club team Inter Miami, but came off the bench in the second half. Nicolas Otamendi scored the only goal in the game early on in the first half as Argentina pulled off the 1-0 win.
Messi had many positives in the game, nearly scoring a goal from the corner at one point, but one negative moment was what reporters wanted to talk about after the game. Paraguay’s Antonio Sanabria appeared to spit at Messi when he turned around at one point.
Incident of Sanabria spitting with Lionel Messi in front of him.pic.twitter.com/jh0fd2WOFS https://t.co/kDePS0f1fU
— Roy Nemer (@RoyNemer) October 13, 2023
Asked about it after the game, though, Messi said he didn’t want to give the player any more attention. He said not only was he not aware of it until his teammates told him, but that he “didn’t even know who that guy is”. Sanabria did play in Barcelona for four years during his youth career from 2009-2013, a time when Messi would have been there as well.
