Lionel Messi was given brutal nickname by Diego Simeone for practical reason

17 December 2023 , 16:23

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Head coach Diego Simeone tried his best to play down the threat of Lionel Messi during Atletico Madrid's clashes with Barcelona (Image: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)

Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone refused to refer to Lionel Messi by name in an attempt to stop the Barcelona star running riot - and instead called him "the dwarf".

The World Cup-winning forward terrorised defences in La Liga during his illustrious 17 seasons at Camp Nou, scoring an implausible 474 goals during his time in Spain. Faced with the task of stopping one of the most prolific marksmen in the history of the game, opposition managers experimented with various methods of trying to minimise his threat.

Going up against Atletico Madrid for titles on a regular basis, Wanda Metropolitano chief Simeone tried to mitigate Messi's talents in a couple of unorthodox ways. Speaking on 'Charla Podcast', former Atleti full-back Filipe Luis has now opened up on his former manager's left-field methods when coming up against the ex-Blaugrana talisman.

He explained how the Argentinian manager made special tactical tweaks to his approach as he tried to quell the diminutive star's threat. The ex-Chelsea star admitted: "At Atleti, Simeone put four players on Messi! So when he scored, it was not one player’s fault, it was just Messi."

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Luis also acknowledged that the manager would even refuse to call the then-Barcelona star by his name, confessing: "Before the games against Barcelona, Simeone never used Messi’s name. He always called him ‘the dwarf’, so when we were in front of him, we would not be afraid of him."

Despite his best efforts, the long-serving Colchoneros manager would often struggle to get the better of the eight-time Ballon d'Or victor during matches against Barca. In fact, the current Argentina captain managed to notch 32 goals and nine assists in his 43 outings against Atleti in all competitions, alongside 26 goals in 30 appearances in La Liga.

Messi did appear to earn the respect of Simeone during their storied clashes between 2011 and 2021 and the latter was effusive in his praise of the forward last year. Speaking as the now-Inter Miami star was leading his country at the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, it was clear that the Atletico manager had full admiration for the winger.

Lionel Messi had a strong record for Barcelona against Atletico Madrid before leaving in 2021

Speaking in a leaked message to Atlético assistant Germán Burgos last year, Simeone said: "Messi is very good, but he's very good because he's accompanied by fantastic players [at Barça]," "If you had to choose between Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo for an average team, who would you go for?" I'd choose Messi, without a doubt"

Speaking after this, he went into more detail about his declaration, saying: "If I had to chose between Messi and Ronaldo, then most likely I would choose Messi Yes I said it on the video, but the conversation was between me and German Burgos, talking about football as everyone talks about it.

"When I talked about Messi and Ronaldo, it wasn't from the perspective of who is the best in the world. I just meant that if you have the chance to sign one of them for a normal club, with normal players, Ronaldo would probably fit in better. But with Messi, surrounded by great players, Messi is better than Ronaldo."

Tom Beattie