Lionel Messi brutally called out by Liverpool cult hero in autobiography

Former Liverpool and Real Madrid goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek brutally called out Lionel Messi in his autobiography.

The Polish international played a key part in Liverpool’s famous Champions League triumph of 2005.

His double save from Andriy Shevchenko in the dying embers kept the score at 3-3 between the sides and resulted in a penalty shoot-out.

A penalty shoot-out in which Dudek proved the ultimate hero, saving a must-score penalty from that man again, Shevchenko, and handing his team the title.

After his heroics in the final, though, Dudek soon fell out of favour at Liverpool and ended up moving to Real Madrid, where he remained as their back-up goalkeeper until he retired in 2011.

Across his four years in the Spanish capital, Dudek appeared just 12 times for the club – talk about an easy living.

But although he rarely featured on the pitch, that doesn’t mean he didn’t get to see much off of it.

Dudek was a regular feature on the Madrid substitute bench whenever an El Classico rolled around.

And it was at these games in which Dudek apparently saw the worst side of Messi and his then manager Pep Guardiola.

According to Italian outlet Il Posticipo via The Daily Mail, Dudek said in his autobiography: “He was very provocative, as were Barcelona and their manager Pep Guardiola.

“They were always ready to annoy you and many times they managed it perfectly.

“I’ve seen and listened to Messi saying very rude things to Pepe and Ramos that you can’t even think about. 

“Imagine what can come out of the mouth of a person who seems so calm and friendly.”

Dudek also spoke briefly about Cristiano Ronaldo and Raul Gonzalez, although not in quite as damning of terms.

Speaking about his former teammates, Dudek said, per The Sun: