There is controversy over a revelation made by the former Chilean referee Carlos Chandia, who confessed to having forgiven him a red card Lionel Messi so that he wouldn’t miss the final of the 2007 Copa America.
According to the criteria of
Messi He was just a young man who was beginning to stand out and wore the number 18 shirt (Juan Román Riquelme wore number 10), but he was already beginning to show his magic on each of the playing fields.
The Argentine star was sent off in the third-place match of the Copa América.
Photo:
Messi and a naive player
Chandia He explained that in the 2007 Copa America semi-final against Mexico He was spared the red card so that he could play in the final, the star had seen a yellow card in the 49th minute and another warning would keep him out of the big match against Brazil.
Argentina won 3-0 with goals from Heinze, Riquelme and Messi, who produced a masterpiece by chipping the ball over the opposing goalkeeper. However, the Rosario native was saved from being sent off due to a mistake of naivety.
Messi He touched the ball with his hand in the centre of the field, without any sense, the rules dictated that he should see a yellow card and be sent off, but the Chilean referee let him pass in exchange for giving him his shirt.
“It happens that Messi was on a yellow card and I had given three minutes of added time and Argentina was winning 3-0 against Mexico, and Messi, out of nowhere, picks up a ball and carries it with his hands, but in the middle of the field, no chance of a goal for the Mexican team or anything like that,” said the Australian in a chat with ESPN.
Chandia He asked him for the number 18 shirt with which he was shining at that time America’s Cup which was held in Venezuela: “So what happens? I told him: ‘Well, this play is a yellow card, but it will cost you your shirt,’ and I didn’t show him the yellow card, because it was two and a half minutes and the game was 3-0, it was cutting off his chance to play the final of the 2007 Copa América in Venezuela.”
The surprise he got Chandia was that Lionel Messi He took off his shirt and was about to hand it over in front of the entire stadium: “He left it with me in the locker room afterwards, he wanted to take it off on the pitch, I told him ‘not here’.”
HAROLD YEPES
SPORTS
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