Cucurella approached Messi with his hands open, almost like someone trying to calm things down. Enzo Fernández had just been sent off, and the Spanish defender only wanted to talk, player to player, with no hard feelings.
What happened next is what has half the internet outraged. Instead of responding with the same calmness, Messi allegedly confronted the referee and pressured him to send off Cucurella as well. Not a single gesture of sportsmanship, not a word in return, just the persistent complaint to the assistant referee.
For many who grew up watching him as the example of humility on the pitch, the scene came as a cold shower. “What have you become”, reads among the comments that today question one of football’s greatest idols. The disappointment, this time, did not come from a defeat.