Manchester United’s midfielder Scott McTominay revealed that Lionel Messi refused to give him his shirt after the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals in 2019. In an interview with ESPN, the athlete said Messi originally refused because he thought the Scot was responsible for an elbowing incident during the game, which left Messi with a black eye and a bleeding nose.
The midfielder then asked his teammate goalkeeper Sergio Romero to explain that he was innocent and that it was Chris Smalling, who elbowed him.
"Sorry Chrissy, but he was the one who roughed him up a bit," McTominay said.
After the explanation Messi agreed to give his shirt to McTominay who revealed that the jersey now proudly hangs in his bedroom.
Reports say that the Argentine superstar has only once refused to give his shirt to a colleague. According to Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies, he asked Messi for a shirt, but the forward simply walked away. But take a moment before you rush to judge Messi, because it seems Davies himself was to blame for the refusal: after all the incident occurred after Bayern defeated Barcelona 8-2 - the club’s worst defeat in the Champions League.
The club’s worst defeat in its history came in 1931 when it lost 12-1 to Athletic Bilbao.