Former Atlético Madrid player reveals boss Simeone's offensive nickname for Messi

Lionel Messi is probably the best player in the history of La Liga. For 17 years he shone in Spain with the Barcelona shirt, breaking all records for goals, assists and titles. In fact, during his career he netted 474 goals in 520 games there, an impressive 0.91 average. And he was a 10-time tournament champion.

So it is not surprising that the coaches of rival teams did everything they could to stop him, knowing that he was Los Blaugranas' main weapon, and that nullifying him could be the key to getting a positive result against them. But most failed in this attempt, as Leo usually found a way to overcome the obstacles.

However, one of the teams that gave Messi the most difficulties was Atletico Madrid, especially since the arrival of boss Diego Simeone. And now, during an interview with Charla Podcast, one of the players of that team revealed the secrets that the Argentine coach had.

Filipe Luis shocked everyone saying: "There are coaches who put one player to watch Messi, others put two or three players. At Atleti, Simeone put four players to keep an eye on him alone". And then he added: "And when he scored goals, whose fault was it? Nobody's. We had all done our job well, but it was Messi."

The nickname

But undoubtedly Filipe Luis' most surprising confession was about the nickname Diego Simeone gave the Argentine forward. "Before the matches against Barça, Simeone never used Messi's name.... He always called him 'the dwarf' so that when we were in front of him we wouldn't be afraid of him." Nevertheless, Simeone has always shown his admiration for Messi and, in fact, a few weeks ago he defended his Ballon d'Or award when he said, "He has won the World Cup by being the best, what else does he have to do?"