Former Barcelona defender Jean-Clair Todibo has revealed that Barcelona enforced a weird rule for the duration of his time at the club to shield Lionel Messi.
23-calendar year-outdated Todibo only designed four appearances during his time at Barcelona, joining from Toulouse in 2019.
Even so, he trained alongside some of the pretty best players, such as Environment Cup winner Messi.
Talking to the Ligue 1 display, Todibo discovered a ‘crazy’ rule imposed by higher ups at Barcelona to protect the Argentine.
‘At Barcelona, we were not authorized to contact Leo Messi in training,’ he discovered.
Jean-Clair Todibo has unveiled that Barcelona enforced a weird rule in the course of his time at the club to protect Lionel Messi
Todibo only manufactured 4 appearances through his time at Barcelona, becoming a member of from Toulouse in 2019
The current Pleasant defender said that he was not authorized to contact Messi in Barcelona instruction
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‘It sounds mad, but it is really legitimate. We experienced to be very careful. It truly is standard, he is the best, you don’t want to harm him.’
The rule may well have arrive into engage in all through the latter many years of Messi’s career, as Thierry Henry beforehand exposed that Messi was usually fouled in schooling.
Speaking in Rio Ferdinand’s autobiography in 2014, Henry opened up on Mesis’s response to being fouled in education and not staying awarded a cost-free-kick.
‘When the ball went back again to his goalkeeper, he ran back and demanded the ball,’ Henry commenced.
‘The goalkeeper rolled him the ball, Messi then ran via the full crew to rating in anger.’
Because then, it seems that a rule experienced been launched to protect Barcelona’s star as Todibo was not permitted to endanger Messi.
The defender would finally be authorized to tackle Messi when the pair moved to France, Todibo in 2021 (permanently), and his previous team-mate a calendar year later.
Todibo has flourished with Wonderful, who at present sit 2nd in Ligue 1 – guiding Messi’s previous facet PSG.
He has considering the fact that been linked with a substantial-profile move to Manchester United.