'Messi thought I elbowed him in the face!'

Our Academy graduate believes the Argentina icon is the best player in world football and impressively has his match-worn jersey on display at home, in pride of place on his bedroom wall.

Acquiring such a famous shirt is no easy task, however, and McTominay’s request was amusingly met by a frosty response from Messi – because he blamed Scott for receiving a bloody face at Old Trafford.

The Barcelona talisman was given some rough treatment during the first leg of our quarter-final tie back in 2019, which we unfortunately lost 1-0.

Messi was visibly hurt from a challenge with former United defender Chris Smalling and made his frustrations clear to the referee. 

Unfortunately for McTominay, his hero blamed him and a post-match request for his shirt via international team-mate Sergio Romero fell flat. 

In a conversation with ESPN about the best player in the world, Scott says: “Messi, 100 per cent. Yeah, Messi, Messi. I got his shirt, you know?

“So, whenever we played against him for Barcelona [in 2019], Chris Smalling elbowed him and he's got blood coming out of his nose. And he thought it was me. 

 

Scott McTominay needed an assist from Sergio Romero to get Messi's shirt 😅

(via @alexisenunes) pic.twitter.com/NaJeRlIjOm

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 1, 2021

“Because I said to Sergio Romero, 'please can you ask Messi to get his shirt?'.

“Sergio comes back in and said, 'Oh, he thinks you were the one who elbowed him on the halfway line'. I said, 'No, no, no, no - tell him it wasn't me, so make sure I get that shirt because that's going in my bedroom'. So he knows it wasn't me now.

“Sorry Chrissy, but he was the one who roughed him up a bit.”