Lionel Messi was spat on by Paraguay striker Antonio Sanabria during Argentina’s 1-0 win in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, but did not want to make a big deal out of it.
In the 85th minute of the match at Monumental Stadium on the morning of October 13, after an argument with Sanabria, Messi turned and left. The Paraguay striker immediately spat at Messi. The Argentine striker did not know this action of his opponent, but television cameras recorded the entire incident.
It wasn’t until he returned to the dressing room that Messi was told by his teammates about Sanabria’s behavior, but he took the incident lightly. “It’s better to ignore this,” he said in a short interview with Vivo channel after the match.
Messi also affirmed that he did not know who Sanabria was and did not want to make noise. He thought that if he did this, Sanabria would become more famous and go out to spread the word about the incident.
Messi entered the field in the 53rd minute. The 36-year-old striker almost scored with two free kicks that hit the post. Messi recently returned from injury in the Inter Miami shirt, at the MLS tournament. Since the team gathering in September, Messi has only played 72 minutes.
“I’m happy to play again,” the Argentina captain added. “It’s always difficult to get into the game, even more so in a tight match like this. The important thing is that we won and played well, especially in the first half.”
Argentina defeated Paraguay 1-0 thanks to midfielder Nicolas Otamendi’s only goal in the third minute. Messi and his teammates won their third consecutive match in the qualifying round, after defeating Ecuador 1-0 and Bolivia 3-0 in the first two matches. Messi scored in the match against Ecuador but sat out in the away match at Bolivia due to physical problems.
Argentina currently leads the 2026 World Cup qualifying round in South America, with nine absolute points, two points ahead of second-place Brazil. Meanwhile, with one point after three matches, Paraguay fell to eighth. The South American qualifying round includes 10 teams, with the top six teams going straight to the final round. The team ranked seventh must compete for tickets with representatives from other continents.
On October 17, Argentina will be a guest on the field of ninth-ranked team Peru. Meanwhile, Paraguay returns home to take on bottom team Bolivia.
Sanabria is playing for Torino in Serie A, after moving from Betis in 2021. The 27-year-old Paraguayan striker trained at Barca’s La Masia oven from 2009 to 2013. In the 2013-2014 season, Sanabria played 10 matches and scored three goals for Barca B, before going to Italy to play for Sassuolo.