Messi has a revolver to his head called the World Cup - Sampaoli

Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli is a pretty colourful character and he’s come up with some pretty interesting quotes about our man Lionel Messi.

Turns out Sampaoli’s written a book which is due to be released in April, but extracts have been published in “Viva”, Clarin’s Sunday magazine and they’re pretty entertaining

“Messi has a revolver put to his head called the World Cup and if he doesn’t win it, he’s shot and killed. As a result, he can’t enjoy his talent.

”What I find is that the negativity surrounding international football damages Messi.

“At this moment, I feel that I’m coaching the best player in history. This is a guy who has stayed as the best in the world for 10 years.

“It’s difficult to assume a level of control when your leader knows he’s better than you, he executes things like nobody else.”

Source | Viva

Despite Messi’s incredible success at club level and generally amazing ability there’s still an argument that he can’t be described as the greatest of all time until he wins the World Cup with Argentina.

That does place huge pressure on Messi on international duty and all eyes will be on him once again in Russia this summer to see if he can help Argentina win it for the first time since 1986.