Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen has reflected on his relationship with club legend Lionel Messi and admitted they didn't always get on.
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Messi and Ter Stegen shared dressing room for seven yearsBarcelona duo didn't always see eye-to-eyeGerman international shed light on their relationshipFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
Ter Stegen has revealed that he and Messi "annoyed" each other after experiencing several "bad moments" following the German goalkeeper's arrival in 2014 until the Argentine left the club in 2021.
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Ter Stegen arrived at the Camp Nou ahead of the 2014-15 season and won the treble in his debut campaign, making crucial contributions to the team's Champions League glory. While that was the last time Barcelona would taste continental success, they dominated domestically, winning four La Liga titles before Messi left the club for free in 2021. Although Ter Stegen and Messi experienced a lot of highs on the pitch, they didn't exactly enjoy a cordial relationship off of it.
WHAT MARC-ANDRE TER STEGEN SAID
In an interview with (h/t SPORT), Ter Stegen was asked about his favourite moment with Messi. "The good moments or the bad moments? [laughs] We had them all," said the Barca captain.
"Leo is a special character at this level because he is motivated by a lot of things that we don’t see, I think. We’ve had moments where things didn’t work out between us because he was annoyed with me and I was annoyed with him."
DID YOU KNOW?
Ter Stegen was asked if he ever attained closure with Messi following his conflicts with the 2022 World Cup winner, to which the goalkeeper replied: "We never argued, as if to say we didn’t get along at all. But we had our moments, and that’s fine.
“We were in the locker room together for a long time, and it was definitely interesting to have him in the team and see how he leads. Whether it’s my style or not, it was interesting to see.
“Leo is not a loudmouth; he works a lot with presence and needs to say relatively little, really. And when he says something, everyone listens. And that’s what you really want to achieve as a captain: to be listened to and followed.”
