Papu Gómez gives the key to Messi’s poor performance in Paris

Papu Gómez gives his best version these months at Sevilla, where he plays with the freedom that Lopetegui now gives him. The Argentine revealed on ESPN one of his secrets, which he received from his coach at Atalanta a few years ago: “When he changes my position, Gasperini tells me: ‘I want to try you out but you’re going to have to score 5 in the defensive, without the ball. With the ball I’m going to give you freedom’. And then he asks me: ‘Of the 22 on the field, who do you think is the most free?’ I answer him: ‘well, the 5, or the center back who more or less sees the court in the best way’. ‘No’, he tells me, ‘the best positioned of all is the referee. He always walks alone because he is away from the quilombo, and he always has a good view of all sides. Look for the referee, that you are going to receive many times only in the hooking position.”

“Gasperini is the most important coach of my career. A phenomenon as a coach. I was his captain for five years and there was wear and tear that leads to sparks. There came a time when we couldn’t live together anymore and I had to leave, like any job with your boss,” Papu says about the notorious fight he had with the Italian coach and that led to his signing for Sevilla.

The Sevilla player also spoke about Messi’s difficult situation at PSG: “They are going a little out of line with Messi. He had injuries after the Copa América and with the Covid he had a really bad time. He happens to him what happened to me, with the difference he had been in Barcelona for 20 years. He comes to language, another climate, because in Barcelona it can be 15 degrees and in Paris, zero. It also needs the kids to get used to it… These are changes that lead you to have to adapt. And Leo was the owner of Barcelona, ​​the one who managed the team. Leo is still the best on the planet and there is nothing to give him. It’s a matter of time and we all want to see the best version of him in Paris, because in the Argentine team he continues to show it”.

He also praised Rodrigo de Paul, signed this season at Atlético de Madrid: “He’s a good friend, he grew up in Sarandí like me and we hit the same streets. We talk two or three times a week on Facetime. I know him from Udinese, I saw him grow. He was born as a winger and hitch but in Italy he began to play inside. De Paul became a leader, he had a tactical evolution.”

Finally, he referred to his famous dance, of which he says that sometimes he gets tired but that he continues to lavish when he scores a goal: “Once I was walking in Seville and someone put my cell phone on me and asked me ‘Come on Papu, dance a little’. I got hot and told him ‘what do you think, that I’m a circus monkey?’ But I know that the dance of joy, especially to the little ones”.