10 times Lionel Messi was football’s biggest bad boy: Red cards, feuds…

Despite his consistent showings of superhuman abilities through the years, Lionel Messi remains a mere mortal and, like the rest of us, isn't perfect after all.

For a man that is heralded as a God-like figure in the footballing world, you'd think he can do no wrong. But he can. There's a secret dark side to Messi.

He's the John Cena of football; insanely talented, incredibly famous, won everything there is to win, and just too good. Which makes it all the more intriguing to see what it would be like if the shoe was on the other foot, and he became the villain.

This one felt like the straight-A student getting a detention for the first time. You simply couldn't comprehend it, and neither could they.

After 520 games, Messi was shown his first and only red card for Barcelona in 2021 against Athletic Bilbao in the Supercup final.

With Barca losing in extra time, Messi charged down the field but was bumped by Asier Villalibre. Unhappy with the incident as the bump occurred after he passed the ball, Messi hit out and slyly launched a flailing arm his way, which saw him receive a straight red card. Very naughty.

Think the John Cena reference early on was the only wrestling parallel here? Think again, because this was a textbook WWE Raw segment.

Tensions boiled over between Messi and resident man mountain Wout Weghorst on the pitch during the 2022 World Cup quarter-final, but after Argentina booked their spot in the last four, it didn't stop.

Messi was conducting a post-match interview before breaking away from the chat, looking behind the camera and locking onto Weghorst, before saying: “What are you looking at, bobo [fool]?”

Classic heel work from Messi, really leaning into the role and setting up the perfect little vs large match for