{"id":1106296,"date":"2019-09-13T18:16:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T17:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1106296"},"modified":"2019-09-13T18:16:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T17:16:12","slug":"alvaro-gonzalez-last-word-lionel-messi-espanyol-barcelona","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/alvaro-gonzalez-last-word-lionel-messi-espanyol-barcelona\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvaro Gonzalez: How I had the last word with &#8220;minuscule&#8221; Lionel Messi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Former Espanyol defender Alvaro Gonzalez has opened up on an amusing conversation between himself and Barcelona star Lionel Messi.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez, 29, now turns out for French side Marseille, on loan from Villarreal, but faced Messi in a number of\u00a0derbi barcelon\u00ed clashes during his time with Espanyol.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What happened between Gonzalez and Messi? Five things to know&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Gonzalez spent two years at Espanyol, between 2014 and 2016.<\/li>\n<li>During his time there, the centre-back went up against Barcelona on a number of occasions.<\/li>\n<li>On one occasion, Gonzalez said he tried to make fun of Messi&#8217;s height.<\/li>\n<li>But the Argentinian retorted with a jibe about Gonzalez&#8217;s footballing ability.<\/li>\n<li>Now at Marseille, Gonzalez reveals he agreed with Messi and both players laughed in good spirits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7367517-de-bruyne-is-on-course-to-break-henry-s-most-impressive-premier-league-record<\/p>\n<p>And the defender has now revealed how, during a run of three consecutive matches against their bitter rivals in January 2016, he tried to get one over on Messi by commenting on his height, only to have the Argentinian hit back in equally brutal fashion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is quite a funny anecdote,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsfrance.com\/2019\/alvaro-gonzalez-whats-surprised-me-most-about-ligue-1-is-the-passion-here\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> RMC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a period where we had three consecutive derbies between Espanyol and Barcelona. Matches of great intensity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We used to banter each other back and forth. I said to him: &#8216;You are really small, minuscule.&#8217; He looks at me and responds: &#8216;You, you are really bad at football.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1105579\" style=\"width: 1930px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/sergio-ramos-spain-cap-record-forever-man\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1105579\" class=\"wp-image-1105579 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/09162707\/sergio-ramos-forever-man-feature.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/09162707\/sergio-ramos-forever-man-feature.png 1920w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/09162707\/sergio-ramos-forever-man-feature-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/09162707\/sergio-ramos-forever-man-feature-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/09162707\/sergio-ramos-forever-man-feature-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/09162707\/sergio-ramos-forever-man-feature-66x37.png 66w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/09162707\/sergio-ramos-forever-man-feature-620x350.png 620w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/09\/09162707\/sergio-ramos-forever-man-feature-940x530.png 940w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1105579\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">READ MORE:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/sergio-ramos-spain-cap-record-forever-man\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sergio Ramos: Spain\u2019s \u2018Forever Man\u2019 will not go quietly \u2013 he has more history to make<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gonzalez then revealed how he got the final word in before both players shared a laugh at the exchange.<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;I had the final word: &#8216;Yes, we are both right.&#8217; We laughed together and this story brought about a lot of smiles in Spain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ligue 1 gives Gonzalez his &#8220;most amazing&#8221; experience in football<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Gonzalez played in a number of huge matches during his time in Spain, turning out in some of world football&#8217;s most iconic stadiums.<\/p>\n<p>However, it is his short time in France which has already given the 29-year-old his &#8220;most amazing&#8221; experience in football to date, with the passion of Ligue 1 fans catching the Spaniard off guard.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How Unai Emery Plays Lacazette, Aubameyang and Pe\u0301pe\u0301? w\/Nick Bright\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XASmprQsy6Y?start=24&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/sqwk.at\/Squawka-Sub\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What surprised me the most is the passion for football that I have seen in the stadiums,&#8221; Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have only experienced two matches at the V\u00e9lodrome. The last was against St \u00c9tienne and it was certainly the most amazing experience I have ever had in a stadium.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The two matches away from home, at Nice and Nantes, also surprised me in terms of atmosphere. It was loud and intense. And thus very motivational for us on the pitch.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Espanyol defender Alvaro Gonzalez has opened up on an amusing conversation between himself and Barcelona star Lionel Messi.\u00a0 Gonzalez, 29, now turns out for French side Marseille, on loan from Villarreal, but faced Messi in a number of\u00a0derbi barcelon\u00ed clashes during his time with Espanyol. What happened between Gonzalez and Messi? Five things to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1106302,"parent":0,"menu_order":5172,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Former Espanyol defender Alvaro Gonzalez has opened up on an amusing conversation between himself and Lionel Messi.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1106296","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Alvaro Gonzalez: How I had the last word with &quot;minuscule&quot; Lionel Messi | Squawka | EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Espanyol defender Alvaro Gonzalez has opened up on an amusing conversation between himself and Lionel Messi.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/alvaro-gonzalez-last-word-lionel-messi-espanyol-barcelona\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alvaro Gonzalez: How I had the last word with &quot;minuscule&quot; 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