Lionel Messi's heated confrontation with Wout Weghorst at Argentina's quarter-final win against the Netherlands at World Cup 2022 has now been turned into merchandise and commodified in the South American country, such is the adoration for Messi's passion in that moment.
Tensions were sky-high as Argentina narrowly scraped past the Netherlands on penalties, after squandering a two-goal lead in normal time as Wout Weghorst scored a perfectly executed free-kick routine to level the scores in the final minute of the game.
Both sets of players were riled up, though, with Argentina's squad famously celebrating in the faces of their rivals as Lautaro Martinez dispatched the winning penalty. Normally composed and calm during the aftermath of a hard-fought win, Messi was anything but on this occasions.
Indeed, in the press area after the win, Messi asked a passing Wout Weghorst: “¿Que miras, bobo?” (“What are you looking at, stupid?”) on live TV, a phrase that now adorns T-shirts and tea cups nationwide – production has struggled to keep up with the market’s demand.
Q pic.twitter.com/pD3MTRL9pZDecember 9, 2022
He also poked Dutch boss Louis van Gaal, hardly a shrinking violet himself.
“I always respect everyone and I like to be respected as well,” huffed Messi at the end of the match. “Their manager talked a lot. He thinks he invented football, but all they did was play long balls to the tall guys.”
Weghorst took the confrontation with arguably the game's greatest ever player in good faith, though, suggesting Messi at least "knows my name now".
Weghorst explained: “I wanted to shake his [Messi’s] hand after the match, but he smashed my hand away and didn’t want to speak with me.
“I wanted to show this respect after the match. But he wasn’t really open to that, he was still a little bit angry with me. But I see it as a big plus that he knows my name now.”
Both players arguably came out of the situation well, though - Messi immortalised himself within the game as Argentina ended up winning the entire tournament, while Weghorst earned himself a move to Manchester United for the rest of the season.
