Many Argentine players are caught up in a racism scandal with French players and Messi, although not directly involved, is constantly mentioned.
During the Copa America championship celebration a few days ago, Enzo Fernandez and several other Argentine players sang racist and homophobic chants towards the French team.
This incident is currently causing great controversy and the French Football Federation has sent a petition to FIFA to denounce Argentina.
Many people in recent days have asked the question, where is Messi – the most important player in Argentina’s team when many of his teammates are causing scandals?
Speaking about this, De Paul told a story to defend Messi but at the same time revealed a “dark side” of the Tango superstar:
“Messi doesn’t allow us to sing songs about Brazil (after last year’s World Cup qualifier win over Brazil) on the pitch because he knows what will happen next. But when we’re in the hotel, when we’re alone, it’s different and Messi takes the top spot.
In the case of Colombia (in the 2024 Copa America Final), they thought Messi and Di Maria were past their prime, so after the victory, we really wanted to find them. But Messi told us, “No bullying, now let’s focus on celebrating.”
ccording to De Paul, it can be understood that Messi always knows how to advise his teammates to maintain their image and do the right thing in public. In private, M10 will have what De Paul describes as “different things”.
Returning to the case of Enzo and some Argentine players being racist towards French players, De Paul spoke up to defend:
“That incident is controversial now because people don’t understand it in the football sense, it was clearly cheating (in the French team). Of course I understand that many other people will feel they were racially discriminated against. But in those cases, I think they should send Enzo a private message and talk to him directly. Just say that Enzo did something that bothered them but don’t unfollow him.”
