Pablo Maffeo does not leave Lionel Messi’s side – and then has a lot to tell. Because Messi was quite talkative.
“And if he goes to the toilet, then you go with him!”: It’s a cliché sentence of every old-fashioned district league coach who wants to make it clear before the game that defense is getting serious today.
Clear announcement, clear assignment, minimal distance to the opponent. Pablo Machin does not train in the district league, but was responsible for Girona in Spain’s LaLiga in 2017. But he also distributed an order from the “close cover” category at the time – it is not known whether the sentence with the toilet was made.
The recipient of the Machin announcement was Pablo Maffeo and the job was a very special one: The Spaniard, who would later become the third most expensive newcomer in the club’s history at VfB Stuttgart and a Bundesliga flop, had to stick with none other than Lionel Messi, back then in action for FC Barcelona. And Maffeo took the job very seriously.
“Messi and I were together the whole game,” Maffeo recalled. And indeed: the defender did not leave ‘La Pulga”s side, often looking for physical contact with an outstretched arm in order not to lose it. “Messi told me ‘You’re here all the time’ to which I replied ‘You’re the best in the world, I won’t leave you alone’,” Maffeo added.
