Lionel Messi and Argentina recently celebrated their first anniversary of winning and getting crowned as the Champions of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, as the world recalled some passionate, emotional, and crazy memories from 2022. Messi’s journey to glory had everything, from setbacks, to comebacks and from hostility to peacemaking.
One of the belligerent moments came from Lionel Messi’s side at the expense of Netherlands striker Wout Weghorst, during their quarter final tie. Messi and Co. won the game in penalties, after losing a two-goal lead to the Dutch, thanks to Weghorst’s brace. However, it was Messi’s remarks towards Weghorst that kind of stole the spotlight from the Dutch international’s goals.
Wout Weghorst dismisses ‘biased’ claims over Messi’s World Cup win
Argentina’s World Cup victory was a fairytale. While many enjoyed it, many lived it, many accepted it, there were many who could not gulp it and called it rigged. The then-Netherlands coach Louis Van Gaal, who had some bitterness for the Argentine lot, being one of the doubters, alleged the tournament to be ‘biased’ towards Argentina.
However, Van Gaal’s own team member, Wout Weghorst has kept aside the ‘bias’ talk and came clean in a recent interview. Despite his verbal altercation with Lionel Messi during the World Cup, Weghorst has come out to acknowledge Argentina’s victory and said, “they deserved to win”.
The 31-year-old stated, “Van Gaal’s words about the bias towards Argentina? No, frankly, I don’t agree with Van Gaal. I heard what he said but I don’t see it that way.”
He further justified that there was no bias, and mentioned, “We equalized in the tenth minute of stoppage time with a free kick on the edge of the penalty area. If it were the other way around, the referee wouldn’t have given that free kick.”
Messi’s viral post-match altercation with Wout Weghorst
Lionel Messi seemed like a man on mission during the World Cup, aggressively facing every opponent without cutting any slack. Former Manchester United striker Wout Weghorst fell victim to Messi’s wrath and was asked “Que mira bobo?” by the Argentine. The phrase translated to “What are you looking at you fool?”.
Apparently, during Lionel Messi’s post match interview, Weghorst came to talk and shake hands, and Messi did not have any of it, and rather clashed with him by calling him a ‘fool’. Not just Weghorst, Messi seemed to be annoyed at the whole Netherlands setup, as he brought the ‘Riquelme’ celebration in front of their bench.
However, Messi later on said that he regretted his actions during and after the quarter finals against the Dutch, and said, “I reacted that way. There had been many things with this player, moments of tension like these . . . I was at the mixed zone, it had just happened, I don’t like to leave that image, but these things happen.”
Should footballing minds like Louis van Gaal call the most prestigious tournament in the sport ‘rigged’ or ‘biased’? What impact does it create on the fans? Let us know your opinion about this issue in the comments.
