Former Referee: I knelt before Messi, he hugged me and said he was my fan

According to Sport, Cristobal Soria recalled how he became involved with Messi.

The El Chiringuito commentator recently guested on the podcast El After de Post United, hosted by Steve Calsada, where he reflected on his experiences as a referee and Sevilla representative, and also spoke about how he began to establish a connection with one of football's greatest players, Leo Messi.

Soria and Messi are now friends, but it all started one day outside the Barcelona club dressing room. Soria had gone to Camp Nou to watch a match, and due to a disturbance outside the stadium, he was escorted out by private security and the Catalan police, but he was allowed back in shortly after.

"They left me aside as if I were some undesirable person," Soria said. He then revealed that when the phone rang, it was Gerard Pique calling: "He said, 'Old Soria, where are you? My brother told me you're here.' And I said, 'Look, I'm at this restroom exit...'"

At that moment, the former Sevilla representative decided to prove to the club's security personnel that he was on the phone with a Barca player, but they didn't believe him at all. "They completely ignored me," Soria admitted.

"Three minutes later, a Barca staff member came to the spot I mentioned to find me. He came to me and said, 'Brother Soria, follow me.'" Soria said. He never expected that he would end up walking into the Barca dressing room.

"When I walked in, everyone was banging on the locker doors and the floor with their shoes, singing, 'Where's CR7?' I immediately joined them in singing, but then I told them I wanted to meet their saint," Soria said.

Soon, he met Messi: "I stood in front of Leo Messi and bowed to him; I even knelt before him, and Leo hugged me in the dressing room surrounded by his teammates. Leo told me, 'I'm your fan.'"

Soria also joked that his reaction to hearing that was: "I almost peed my pants." He concluded by adding that it was from that experience that "a story full of love and respect was born between the two."