Messi World Cup win: Lionel Messi’s World Cup triumph in 2022 is still making headlines and someone has made a controversial statement on it. Louis van Gaal has claimed that the FIFA World Cup 2022 was rigged in favour of Lionel Messi and Argentina. This is a harsh and unprofessional statement from him.
The route to FIFA glory wasn’t so easy for Messi’s Argentina. They had a poor start to the campaign when they lost to Saudi Arabia in the group stage. The knockout stage was also tough and there were some moments when Argentina were on the verge of losing the game. They fought hard to end the title drought and also completed the football for Messi.
Van Gaal, who made a shocking statement was in charge of the Dutch side. The same side was beaten by Messi’s Argentina in the quarterfinals. The 72-year-old Dutchman has claimed that Argentina were assisted in route to winning the FIFA World Cup title in Qatar. The Netherlands-Argentina game was a crazy affair where we saw 16 yellow cards and one red card. The game went into the penalty shootout.
The Dutchman was not happy with the exit of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. Argentina held the nerves in the penalty shootout and made it into the next round. Former Barcelona manager said, “I don’t really want to say much about it. When you see how Argentina gets the goals and how we get the goals, and how some Argentina players overstepped the mark and were not punished, then I think it was a premeditated game.”
Van Gaal was asked to clarify his comments, he said, “I mean everything I say. That Messi should become world champion? I think so, yes.” Argentina defeated the 2018 WC winner, France in a penalty shootout to win the trophy. Messi was also awarded the Golden Ball for his great performance for the team. The 36-year-old is also favourite to win an eighth Ballon d’Or in 2023.
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