Messi WAS 'bothered' by Lewandowski comments after winning The Best award

Lionel Messi has admitted to having a feud with FC Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski.

FC Barcelona legend Lionel Messi has confessed he had a feud with the club's current striker Robert Lewandowski during an interview with ESPN.

Messi was seen snubbing Lewandowski when their respective countries Argentina and Poland met at Qatar 2022. He was also believed to have specifically targeted him during the game with tricks and dribbles.

"Even my grandmother realised that Messi was deliberately confronting Lewandowski," revealed Messi's close friend and teammate Angel Di Maria in the Star+ documentary 'Champions, a year later', which chronciles La Albiceleste's journey to a third World Cup title.

"These are things about him that remain inside him sometimes. When someone talks about him, he ends up throwing it at you," Di Maria added.

"There are people who talk and don't respect him, and don't realise that he is the best player in history. So you don't have to tell him anything, because in the end he ends up getting angry and it makes things worse [for opponents]."

In his own chat with ESPN, Messi addressed the row and confessed that he had been "bothered" by Lewandowski's statements after winning The Best award.

Messi made a tribute to Lewandowski when claiming the 2021 Ballon d'Or, and noted that the then-Bayern Munich star should have won it in 2020 when the gong was postponed because of the pandemic.

After Messi didn't vote for Lewandowski to win The Best award, Lewandowski said this "was difficult for me to relate to," to Polish outlet Pilka Nozna.

"I voted for Messi because I appreciate what he did in 2021 and, of course, earlier. Messi voted for me in the Ballon d'Or, and I don't know why his point of view changed later.

"However, I have no regrets, no complaints, I accepted it, he made his decision and that's it," Lewandowski finished.

Back in the present, Messi told of how he was bothered by Lewandowski's words "because when I won the Ballon d'Or and I said what I said, I really felt it."

Messi validated Di Maria's remarks by revealing how he dribbled Lewandowski again "because it was him" during the 2-0 win for Argentina over Poland.

"Then we crossed paths, talked and [realized] it was a misunderstanding. I was upset, I thought I didn't reciprocate what he said. It was heated."

With Lewandowski now plying his trade at Messi's boyhood outfit, he and the Argentine "talked a lot about the club, about the city, and everything was fine," insisted the Inter Miami forward.