Jerzy Dudek has lifted the lid on his experiences playing against Lionel Messi during his time at Real Madrid, and claims the superstar was 'provocative' on the pitch.
Dudek played for Real Madrid between 2007 and 2011, having starred for Liverpool, and later penned an autobiography detailing moments from his stellar career.
As a result of his time between the sticks at the Bernabeu, he was tasked with keeping out Messi on a number of occasions in fierce El Clasico derbies.
And of the six-time Ballon d'Or winner, he wrote: 'He was deceptive and provocative, the same as Barcelona and Pep Guardiola.
'They were so ready to provoke you and they were able to do it to perfection.
'That hurt Jose Mourinho and the whole team a lot.
'I saw Messi say such rude things to Pepe and [Sergio] Ramos that you would not imagine from such a quiet and seemingly good person.'
Ramos, now of PSG, and Pepe formed a formidable partnership at the back for Madrid, but even they were unable to prevent Messi's magic in LaLiga.
Dudek, meanwhile, also shared his opinions on Cristiano Ronaldo and Raul, two of his former team-mates.
'Cristiano Ronaldo is arrogant, but he's a normal guy behind the scenes,' he added.
'It's about how people perceive him, more or less.
'Like Raul, he's egocentric, incredibly competitive and a winner.
'Both would prefer their team to win 2-1 with their goals than 5-0 with other players scoring.'
Dudek hung up his gloves in 2011, rounding off his career with Madrid.
Moxan
383
Barcelona and their obsession with Madrid
Vowcilt
361
MESSI the best and most complete football player in history
Moxan
267
Both Messi and Cr5 in 9yrs played 30 El claico! Cr5 won 8 times with 18 goals. Messi won 14 times with 21 goals draw 8 times! Messi completely dominated, decimated, pocketed, subdued, humbled,annihilated and conquered Cristiano for 9years! Messi was the greatest headache of Madrid according to Ramos.
Moxan
263
Me thinking who Jerzy Dudek is. I've never heard his name before
AsifiweThomas
124
Madrid players was told to tackle messi by all mean(breaking his legs to end their mesery and humiliation from messi) but they didn't succeed in the end they got this ronaldo on his knees(asking for forgiveness) and Casillas on ground lost in the game