Kevin-Prince Boateng has shared that Lionel Messi’s approach to training negatively affected Barcelona’s younger players.
The former Ghanaian international played alongside Messi during his loan spell at Barcelona in the 2018/19 season from Serie A club Sassuolo.
Although Boateng made just four appearances for the club, he still earned a La Liga medal as Barcelona secured their eighth league title in 11 years. Messi finished the season as the league’s top scorer with 36 goals.
Despite Messi’s remarkable performance, which helped Barcelona clinch the title, Boateng provided unexpected insights into Messi’s training habits.
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On ‘Rio Ferdinand Presents,’ the retired player explained that Messi’s relaxed attitude towards training had a bad influence on the younger players at the club.
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So we come in the dressing room, he’s just sitting there on his phone [and] gets a massage sitting down. Two minutes before we go out, he just stands up, closes his boots, and goes out.
The warm-up for the Champions League game against Liverpool, [we did the] crossbar challenge and then he goes back inside. [The] coach made the last adjustment, [Messi] is on the phone face-timing [and] 30 seconds before we go out, he just comes and puts his jacket on and BOOM, goal, goal, goal.
Boateng says Messi’s training habits negatively impacted youngsters
While Messi, now 37, is often considered a football genius, his effortless style of training didn’t have the same effect on some of Barcelona’s younger players.
Boateng recalled:
That’s what the young players did in Barcelona: Malcom, Dembele, they looked at him and they didn’t train so then going to the game, they got injured. He’s the only one in the world that can do that.
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Boateng joined Barcelona on a loan deal from Sassuolo in January 2019, with an option to buy, but the option was not exercised, and he left the club at the end of the season.
