Paris Saint-Germain star Leandro Paredes has, on Sunday, provided an insight into an incident which culminated in him being left on the receiving end of the seldom-seen nasty side of teammate Lionel Messi.
The situation in question came about during a Champions League meeting between PSG and Barcelona back in 2021.
After the aforementioned Messi guide the evening’s hosts into an early lead at the Camp Nou, PSG soon came roaring back, turning the clash firmly on its head courtesy of a Kylian Mbappe hat-trick, and further strike on the part of Moise Kean.
In his first game at Camp Nou, and his first time facing Barcelona…
Kylian Mbappe completes a wonderful hat-trick with a SUBLIME finish 🤩
We are witnessing greatness! pic.twitter.com/7uc84LQ2nE
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 16, 2021
Messi, in turn, was left in an altogether foul humour, watching his once great side embarrassed on home turf on the biggest stage of them all once more.
And such fury on the part of the 7-time Ballon d’Or winner, as alluded to above, soon culminated in fellow countryman Leandro Paredes incurring the wrath of Barca’s captain and talisman.
Speaking in an interview with Caja Negra this weekend, midfielder Paredes opened up on the incident, which came about upon Messi overhearing an exchange between he and his PSG teammates:
“He got angry, because I had made a comment to my team-mates and he heard me,” Paredes began. “And he got angry.”
“He became really angry. He f*cked me up. It was bad. He wanted to kill me and I wanted to go home.”
Paredes, though, later went on to confirm that all is now well between he and Messi, with the pair, now teammates in Paris, able to ‘talk about it and laugh’ upon the subject coming to the fore:
“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!”
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