Royston Drenthe has made a surprising revelation about Lionel Messi, claiming that Argentine players commonly use racist terms among themselves.
Since the 2022 World Cup, Argentine players have been at the center of several controversies, from insults directed at Kylian Mbappé to Dibu Martinez’s provocative gestures. Now, Lionel Messi is also facing allegations of inappropriate behavior.
Speaking on the podcast The Wild Project, former Real Madrid and Hércules player Royston Drenthe shared a shocking anecdote about an encounter with Messi during the 2010/2011 season against FC Barcelona.
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“In a match when I was playing for Hércules against Barça, Messi called me a ‘black bastard’ and told me that Argentine players use that term among themselves. For them, it’s normal—they even said it to Garay, and he didn’t care. But they need to understand that it’s offensive to someone like me. It’s not the same when a friend says it in training versus when an opponent does. We never talked about it again—it’s in the past,” Drenthe stated.
His testimony has reignited discussions about the heated encounters between Barcelona and Real Madrid during that era. Whether this revelation will bring new perspective on Messi’s rivalry with his opponents in La Liga remains to be seen.
