In Liverpool, Mohamed Salah and Alexis Mac Allister have been known to jest at Virgil Van Dijk by borrowing Messi’s words.
Van Dijk, a member of the Dutch national team, experienced defeat against Argentina led by Messi in the quarter-finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The tense match concluded with 18 yellow cards and 1 red card. Despite the Netherlands’ impressive comeback to equalize 2-2, they eventually lost 3-4 in the penalty shootout, a memory Van Dijk prefers not to revisit.
A heated altercation took place in the tunnel after the match, with forward Wout Weghorst waiting to exchange jerseys with Messi only to be rebuked by the Argentine star: “Que miras bobo, anda palla” (loosely translated: “What are you looking at, fool? Get out of here”).
Mac Allister, Messi’s teammate in Argentina’s World Cup-winning journey, took pleasure in teasing Van Dijk with this incident. The Argentine midfielder, along with Salah, frequently provoked Van Dijk with the phrase.
Mac Allister shared on DSports: “Together with Salah, we would constantly tell Van Dijk, ‘Anda palla, bobo’ (get out of here, fool).”
“We drove Van Dijk crazy with this trick. We would throw that phrase at him all day whenever something happened to him,” Mac Allister revealed.
Following the World Cup, Messi expressed regret for using harsh words with Weghorst. However, Mac Allister saw it as playful banter to tease a teammate from Liverpool.
Nevertheless, Mac Allister had fewer opportunities to taunt Van Dijk as the Dutch defender was in excellent form. Van Dijk recently scored the deciding goal to help Liverpool defeat Chelsea in the final of the English League Cup. This marked Van Dijk’s 8th trophy with Liverpool.