Di María defends Messi and answers Matthäus: Go cry somewhere else!

Lionel Messi is once again a hot topic in the football world. On Monday, he won his eighth Ballon d’Or, which seems undeserved to some. But Angel Di María is defending his national teammate.

On Monday, the Argentine footballer was named the best footballer for the 2022/23 season. However, many people disagree with this, as Messi had a great World Cup, but struggled at club level and was almost invisible in the spring.

Erling Haaland, on the other hand, won just about everything he could. He broke the Premier League scoring record and led the Citizens to the coveted Champions League. Even German legend Lotthar Matthäus didn’t like the announcement.

All last year, Haaland was better than Messi. It’s undeserved that Messi won. It’s impossible to leave Haaland out. I thinkthis choice is a farce, even though I am a Messi fan,” Matthäus told Sky Sports.

“For me, Haaland is the best in the last 12 months. After all, he has won important titles with the Citizens – the Champions League, the Premier League, the FA Cup, and in between he has broken goalscoring records,” added Matthäus, who won the Ballon d’Or in 1990.

Di María and his response

Argentine footballer Angel Di María, however, does not share this view at all. A leading Argentine daily quoted the words on its Instagram, with the Benfica Lisbon midfielder adding a smiley face in the comments.

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Příspěvek sdílený Diario Olé (@diario.ole)

Many fans, like Matthäus, were bothered by the fact that the whole award was based on the World Cup. Messi shone there, but otherwise it was not a glorious season.

PSG only finished second in the LM regular season group behind Benfica and got burnt out in the eighth round. In the league, they won the title just one point ahead of Lens. Moreover, the Argentine was often booed by his own fans for his performances.

That the whole award is based on the championship is proven by the award for the best goalkeeper of the year, which was won by Emiliano Martínez. He led Argentina to the World Cup trophy, but his performances at Aston Villa certainly don’t command the respect of the world’s best goalkeeper.

Source: Diario Olé