The other side of Messi

Translated from a Dutch news story today:

LIVERPOOL ? Royston Drenthe doesn't have a good word to say about Lionel Missi. The Everton midfielder has only bad experiences with the Argentinian maestro.

?I've played against him a lot and we've always had a problem with each other.?, said Drenthe in the latest edition of Helden. He regularly faced Barcelona during his time in Spain.

?Do you know what irritates me the most? The tone in which he always called me ?negro, negro?. I understand that negro is quite normal to use in South America but we can't stand it.?

?Mahamadou Diarra, my team-mate at Real, could explode if they called him negro. The Argentinians Gabriel Heinze and Gonzalo Higuain used the word a lot at first, also at the Real Madrid training sessions, but they stopped using it.?

According to Drenthe, that wasn't the case with Messi, with whom he last clashed two years ago.

?We (Hercules Alicante) won that year in Barcelona. During the game I had another little run in with him. Before the game he shook my hand, but during the game it was ?hola negro? again a few times.?

?After the game I refused to shake his hand. No, he won't invite me to his birthday party.?

Posted By: Steve in Holland, May 8, 15:34:02