Lionel Messi has admitted he did intentionally snub Robert Lewandowski at the Qatar World Cup.
Messi’s Argentina took on Lewandowski’s Poland in a tense final group game as neither nation had managed to qualify for the knockout stages at that point.
Argentina eventually won the game 2-0, courtesy of goals from Julian Alvarez and Alexis MacAllister.
Messi would then go on to win an historic first World Cup, cementing his legacy as one of the game’s greatest ever players.
But during the group stage encounter there was a frosty exchange between Lewandowksi and the Inter Miami striker, Messi opening up about the exchange recently.
Robert Lewandowski reaches out to Lionel Messi after contact between the two during the last World Cup group stage game
The two captains spoke after the game but Messi has revealed that he wanted to humiliate the Polish striker
It seems the two have reconciled since then and have been pictured chatting at award ceremonies
Messi beat Lewandowski to the 2021 Ballon D’Or but during speech the Argentine argued the Barcelona forward deserved the award for the previous year, which was cancelled due to the pandemic.
In response, Lewandowski suggested that the Argentine’s remarks weren’t as sincere as they were meant to be, although Messi refutes this and said it was a case of mistranslation.
Following this exchange Messi attempted to take on Lewandowski in a one-on-one but was tackled by the former Bayern Munich man.
In an attempt to reconcile after the contact Lewandowski reached his hand out, which was astutely ignored by Messi, and he has since confirmed he intentionally ignored his rival.
Messi told ESPN: “Lewandowski’s statement in 2021 bothered me because when I won the Ballon d’Or I said what I really felt,”
“I ignored him during the game because it was him and I was angry and thought he shouldn’t have said what he said. I was very angry. Was I deliberately dribbling because it was him? Yes.
“After that we met and talked and agreed that it was a misunderstanding. He was upset because what he said didn’t match what was reported.
“Then he went to Barcelona and we talked about many things about the club, the city and everything.”