Former Messi teammate at Barcelona claims: ‘His dressing room habits makes him a horrible instance for younger gamers’

Kevin-Prince Boateng has revealed that Lionel Messi‘s method to coaching had an adversarial impression on Barcelona’s younger gamers. The previous Ghanaian worldwide performed alongside the Argentine throughout his mortgage spell on the Spanish giants from Serie A crew Sassuolo within the 2018/19 season.

Whereas he solely managed 4 appearances throughout all competitions for the Blaugrana, he did sufficient to safe a La Liga medal alongside Messi, who ended the season because the league’s high scorer with 36 targets.

Regardless of the Inter Miami celebrity’s distinctive efficiency main Barca to their eighth league victory in 11 years, Boateng shared some surprising insights into the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner’s coaching habits.

On ‘Rio Ferdinand Presents’, the ex-Tottenham Hotspur participant confessed that Messi’s minimal exertion in coaching influenced the membership’s younger gamers negatively. “So we come within the dressing room, he’s simply sitting there on his telephone [and] will get a therapeutic massage sitting down,” he advised the Manchester United icon.

“Two minutes earlier than we exit, he simply stands up, closes his boots, and goes out. The nice and cozy up for the Champions League recreation in opposition to Liverpool, [we did the] crossbar problem after which he goes again inside. [The] coach made the final adjustment, [Messi] is on the telephone face-timing [and] 30 seconds earlier than we exit he simply comes and places his jacket on and BOOM, objective, objective, objective.”

The Messi impact: A double-edged sword

Whereas Messi, 37, could also be hailed as the last word soccer wizard, his easy magic didn’t rub off on a few of the youthful gamers at Barcelona who tried to emulate his regime with much less stellar outcomes.

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“That’s what the younger gamers did in Barcelona: Malcom, Dembele, they checked out him and they didn’t practice so then going to the sport, they received injured,“ Boateng recounted. “He’s the one one on the earth that may try this.”

Boateng displays on his personal previous regrets

Now 38, the well-traveled professional, who has racked up appearances for a powerful 15 golf equipment throughout 5 nations, additionally spilled about his previous reckless life-style throughout his stint at Tottenham, admitting to a wild spending spree resulting from an absence {of professional} self-discipline.

“I’ll return and say: I didn’t deal with soccer as a job,” he mentioned in a La Repubblica interview. “I used to be an fool. I had expertise, however I educated the naked minimal, an hour on the sphere. I used to be the final to reach and the primary to depart,” he mentioned in a brutally sincere admission.

“I’d be out with buddies. I had cash, I lived like a king. I’d by no means been to the gymnasium. That adjustments your later profession. I purchased three automobiles in at some point after I was at Tottenham: a Lamborghini, a Hummer and a Cadillac.“

“To the kids, I inform them: ‘You can not purchase happiness’. I didn’t play, I had household issues, I used to be out of the squad. I used to be in search of happiness in materials issues: a automobile makes you cheerful for every week. I purchased three to be glad for 3 weeks.”