Messi gets kicked while he's down by Simeone

The final salute? Could the match with Nigeria next week be Lionel Messi’s last World Cup game?

Lionel Messi probably didn’t need to wake up this morning with the news that one of the world’s top managers has had a dig at him.

Argentina crashed and burned against Croatia on Thursday night, the 3-0 defeat left them on the brink of a scandalously early exit.

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For Messi, it was the moment he realised he was likely to end his career without winning the World Cup.

Turning 35 in 2022, and having already once quit the national side, surely even he can’t write the mother of all fairytales now.

Things couldn’t get much worse – until Diego Simeone has kicked him while he is down.

A number of Spanish news outlets, including El Confidencial and COPE, have obtained audio of a conversation between Simeone and his assistant at Atletico Madrid, Germán Burgos.

It doesn’t make easy listening for Messi from the man the Argentina fans want to manage their country next.

“We have to realise that Messi is very good, but it is clear that he is very good because he is accompanied by extraordinary players,” Simeone says during the phone call, “so the question I ask is: If you had to choose between Messi and Ronaldo, for a normal team, who would you choose?”

Talk about adding fuel to the fire!