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Lionel Messi And Nicolas Otamendi Disagree About Who Should Wear Captain's Armband In Argentina Game

Lionel Messi and Nicolas Otamendi had a friendly argument during Argentina's 1-0 win over Paraguay. They disagreed over who should wear the captain's armband.

Robert Summerscales

Lionel Messi And Nicolas Otamendi Disagree About Who Should Wear Captain's Armband In Argentina Game
Lionel Messi And Nicolas Otamendi Disagree About Who Should Wear Captain's Armband In Argentina Game /

Argentina made it three wins out of three in World Cup qualifying by beating Paraguay 1-0 in Buenos Aires on Thursday night.

Nicolas Otamendi scored the only goal of the game in the third minute when he executed a stunning volley following a corner kick from Rodrigo De Paul.

Otamendi started the match wearing the captain's armband as regular skipper Lionel Messi was on the bench.

But Messi then came on as a substitute in the 53rd minute when he replaced Julian Alvarez.

As he was waiting to come on, Messi spotted Otamendi running towards him to give him the armband.

Messi responded by waving his finger at the former Manchester City defender to tell him to keep it.

However, the friendly disagreement ended with a smiling Messi reluctantly accepting the armband from Otamendi, who did the honors of attaching it around his captain's left bicep.

Otamendi's respect for Messi is well documented. In fact, Otamendi has two tattoos of Messi inked on his body.

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Robert Summerscales
ROBERT SUMMERSCALES

Robert Summerscales launched FanNation Futbol in February 2022. Rob is a British journalist who previously spent two years on the sports desk at the Daily Mail in London, having earlier served as editor of CaughtOffside.com. He has been to the last two FIFA Men's World Cups, in Russia and Qatar, and is looking forward to completing his hat-trick in North America in 2026.