Midfielder Brags He 'Tackled Lionel Messi Hard,' Let Him Feel His Presence

A Maidstone United midfielder bragged about tackling Lionel Messi hard during a match against Argentina.

Andre Boucaud is a 34-year-old midfielder playing for National League South club Maidstone United. He is one of the recent signings of the club and has been a veteran of the sport since 2002. While Boucaud isn’t really a world-famous soccer player, he has one thing to boast about in his career – tackling one of the greatest athletes of all time.

In a recent interview with Kent Online UK, Boucaud, who won almost 50 international caps, recalled the time he went in hard on Barcelona legend Messi when Trinidad & Tobago played Argentina in Buenos Aires six years ago.

"I tackled Messi hard. It was in Argentina and I gave him a hard tackle,” Boucaud said.

According to Boucaud, he really let Messi know he was around while playing against Argentina. As a result, he and Messi had an intense face-off and needed to be separated. It was Javier Mascherano, a clubmate of Messi's at Barcelona at the time who stepped in to calm the situation.

Looking back, Boucaud reflected on the incident and admitted that he realized the possible consequences of his action.

"In the heat of the moment one of the players came over and said, 'my friend, calm down' and I was like, 'shut up, blah, blah, blah'. The guy telling me to calm down was Mascherano so I kind of realized where I was and if I'd injured Messi in Argentina I don't think I'd be here now to do this interview!,” Boucaud admitted.

Evidently, the last thing a club or country who has Messi on their side would want to happen is him getting hurt. In almost every league Messi competes at, it is highly likely that his managers and coaches know how to protect their superstar especially during practice.

In fact, one of the club’s former defenders has revealed Barcelona players are reportedly banned from tackling Messi too hard, TalkSport reported.

Messi has gone through a series of injuries in the past. And according to Jean-Clair Todibo, who moved on loan frm Barcelona to Schalke, the Catalans have gone to extreme lengths to protect their 32-year-old captain from suffering any more injuries.

“We all knew that he couldn’t get injured. Messi was defended very carefully in training. I even tackled him a few times, but I was careful not to hurt him,” Todibo said.