When Lionel Messi speaks, everyone shuts up, even Argentina's President: Emiliano Martinez

Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez recently stated that even the President of Argentina has to keep quiet and listen when the football megastar Lionel Messi speaks. Martinez referred to Messi’s speech on the day of Argentina’s Copa America title victory last year and revealed details about his speech. Argentina picked up a 1-0 win over Brazil in the Copa America final last year, which was the PSG star's first senior international trophy for his country.

As reported by Goal, speaking on Amazon Prime Video, Martinez said, “He made a speech saying this was going to be his last one and that he was going to give it his all. Everyone shuts up. They're all like that, whoever it is - manager, President of Argentina, whoever is there, they just shut up." Following the victorious 2021 Copa America campaign, Messi earned the Golden Ball, Golden Boot, and ultimately, the prestigious Ballon d'Or award.

Lionel Messi hit five goals against Estonia in his previous game

Most recently, the 34-year-old became the highest goal scorer for Argentina by surpassing Ferenc Puskas, who had scored 84 goals for the team. Messi netted a total of five goals during a friendly match against Estonia in Spain, last Sunday. He scored two goals in the first half of the match, including a penalty kick, and went on to score three times in the second half to take his tally of international goals to 86.

A look at Lionel Messi's international stats

The former Barcelona star had never scored for Argentina, five times in a senior-level match. He earlier hit five goals during the 7-1 win over Bayern Leverkusen in the round of 16 matches of the UEFA Champions League 2011-12. At the same time, Messi stands fourth in the list of leading goal scorers in international football.

Messi’s long-time rival and the Portuguese sensation Cristiano Ronaldo leads the chart with 117 goals, including two goals on last Sunday against Switzerland in the UEFA Nations League 2022-23 tournament. Iran’s Ali Daei has scored 109 goals in his career. At the same time, Malaysia’s Mokhtar Dahari has netted 89 international goals so far.

(Image: AP)