The Story Of Lionel Messi Apologising For Scoring A Goal In A Final

Lionel Messi has a total of 734 goals in his glittering career, but he has only apologised once after scoring.

The six-time Ballon d'Or winner scored in a 3-0 win over River Plate in the FIFA Club World Cup final in 2015, but his celebration was understated.

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Instead of celebrating as he did when he scored in the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley, Messi simply lifted his hand as if to apologise to the 16,000 River Plate supporters who travelled.

Although he holds a special affinity with Newell's Old Boys, where he started out, the Argentina captain felt bad for "ruining" the moment for River supporters.

D'Onforio(President, River Plate) "Messi is a gentleman. When he scored the goal he raised his hand in apology" pic.twitter.com/YPp80q9LTf

— Argentina Football Media (Eng) (@ARG_soccernews) December 21, 2015

"I know how much effort all those fans made in making that trip and how excited they were," he said in a post-match interview with FIFA, via Sport.

"And there was me, the Argentinian, scoring the first goal and ruining it all for them.

"I don't know if I was actually saying sorry, but it was a type of apology."

It was a thoroughly nice gesture from Messi, who is always one for sportsmanship.

Messi demonstrated his class in 2019 when he told the referee not to give him a penalty kick after one of his trademark slaloming runs in the net.

With his fancy footwork, he rinsed two players, but the third got his body in front of Messi and stopped him dead in his tracks. After losing his balance, Messi staggered to the ground, but the referee requested a VAR investigation of the incident.

However, Messi quickly informed him that he had not been fouled, and the game began. 

In yesterday's match, Messi lost his balance in the GK's area after a bump in with a defender.

After his fall, the Barça players were asking the ref for a penalty.

The ref asked for a VAR revision, however, Messi told him he wasn't fouled and asked for the match to be resumed. pic.twitter.com/4mMRWqyPsJ

— La Senyera (@LaSenyera) March 10, 2019