Revealed: Lionel Messi jibe driving Virgil van Dijk ‘crazy’ at Liverpool as Mohamed Salah & Alexis Mac Allister torment Anfield team-mate

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, commanding centre-half Van Dijk formed part of the Netherlands squad that came up against Argentina at the quarter-final stage. A fiery encounter saw 18 cards handed out, as the Albiceleste prevailed on penalties, and arguments carried over into the tunnel.

Messi famously clashed with Dutch striker Wout Weghorst, branding him a “fool” during a spicy clash in the tunnel, and Mac Allister has – with the help of Egyptian colleague Salah – been quick to remind Van Dijk of that fact at every opportunity.

Mac Allister, who savoured global glory in the Middle East alongside Messi, has told DS Sports’ ‘Can Pass’ programme of winding up a club colleague at Anfield: “Me and Salah, all day long are saying 'Anda Pa Alla Bobo!' [What are you looking at fool] to Van Dijk. We are driving him crazy and we also do that among ourselves.”

The incident in question was captured by cameras on Netflix’s ‘Captains of the World’ documentary, as Messi refused to shake Weghorst’s hand, and will go down in World Cup folklore – with Van Dijk unlikely to escape the episode any time soon due to antics of his supposed friends on Merseyside.