"I just like him, unless you say Messi" - Diego Simeone picks Atletico star ahead of his son; makes Lionel Messi claim told to pick favorite player

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has snubbed his son, Giuliano Simeone, and named Lionel Messi as the only player he would pick ahead of his striker, Julian Alvarez.

He claimed that the former Manchester City star is his favorite player, ignoring the likes of Jude Bellingham, Mohamed Salah, Pahinha, Cole Palmer, Ousmane Dembélé, Vitinha, Erling Haaland, Pedri, Vinicius Jr., Kylian Mbappé, and Lamine Yamal.

Simeone was on the Spanish program 'El Club Uría', and he was asked to choose between two players, with the selected player advancing to the next round in a knockout style. The manager snubbed everyone to keep Alvarez, crowning him as his favorite player.

However, the Atletico Madrid manager revealed that he would have picked Messi over everyone else and said:

"I just like him, unless you say Messi."

Simeone has always been a fan of Messi, admitting in 2023 that he would pick the Argentine over Cristiano Ronaldo. He said via (The Mirror):

"If you had to choose between Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo for an average team, who would you go for? I'd choose Messi, without a doubt. If I had to choose between Messi and Ronaldo, then most likely I would choose Messi. Yes I said it on the video, but the conversation was between me and German Burgos, talking about football as everyone talks about it."

"When I talked about Messi and Ronaldo, it wasn't from the perspective of who is the best in the world. I just meant that if you have the chance to sign one of them for a normal club, with normal players, Ronaldo would probably fit in better. But with Messi, surrounded by great players, Messi is better than Ronaldo."

Lionel Messi has played 30 matches against Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid, scoring 15 times against the Rojiblancos.

Diego Simeone had a derogatory nickname for Lionel Messi, claimed ex-Atletico Madrid star

Former Atletico Madrid defender Filipe Luis spoke about Diego Simeone's nickname for Lionel Messi and claimed that the manager used to call him 'the dwarf'. The Brazilian added that Simeone never called the Inter Miami captain by his name and told MARCA (via GOAL):

"At Atleti, Simeone put four players on Messi! So when he scored, it was not one player's fault, it was just Messi. Before the games against Barcelona, Simeone never used Messi's name. He always called him 'the dwarf', so when we were in front of him, we would not be afraid of him."

Lionel Messi faced Filipe Luis 27 times in his career, winning 15 times and losing just three times.