It seemed that everything had been forgotten, but a new testimony stirred the waters again. The harsh clash between Argentines after the first leg Inter Miami-Rayados de Monterreyfor the Concachampions left a bunch of testimonies from those who They witnessed the scandal. The incident occurred in the locker room area, when the Las Garzas coach, Gerardo Tata Martino, went to protest to the referee about some rulings that he considered controversial. There he met his colleague, Fernando Ortiz, and his assistant, Nicolas Sanchez, and the discussion escalated. But everything went dark when she appeared on the scene. Lionel Messi, who had not played the game due to an injury. Words go, words come, those who witnessed the discussion were shocked by the fight.
In the following days, several testimonies appeared that allowed us to reconstruct what happened – which happened away from the cameras. First, an audio of Nicolás Sánchez, which Fernando Ortiz’s own collaborator took care of after confirming. Then, a few words from Tata Martino himself. But the truth is that the matter seemed already settled or, at least, forgotten.
However, in the last few hours more details of what happened in the locker room area that night became known. The one who spoke was the Rayados footballer Jordi Cortizo, in a talk on the Padilla Podcast, a popular streaming program in Mexico. The 27-year-old forward said that Messi got angry when he saw Ortiz, due to the statements that the coach had made in the previous match, with references to the refereeing favoring Inter Miami to please the captain of the Argentine team. “Because of the statements he had made, because of the refereeing, that he was in favor of him, that he was no longer the same Messi as before. Like he was angry and said ‘not among Argentines’. ‘Why, if we are Argentines, are you whoring me?’ ‘Who do you think you are?’ Messi was angry about that issue“Cortizo stated.
How was the beginning of it all? Cortizo tells it: “The game ends and I remember that I even entered the locker room and suddenly they started fighting. And the issue is that Nico Sánchez, who was at the top, because he is not on the bench with the other teachers, goes down and the game referees pass by. AND Messi told them until they were going to die. They were fighting there with the referees. Tata also told them everything. Nico only commented on what he said in the video. He told Concacaf that if we spoke like that they would throw us all out. And there the hill caught fire”.
For Cortizo, it was all about a strategy by Ortiz to make the Inter Miami star nervous, a plan that, in the words of the Mexican soccer player, went perfectly. “The teacher (Fernando Ortiz) was very calm. I think the teacher did very well, because he got him (Messi) out of his mind, he didn’t let the game be managed in favor of Inter Miami of the stars. I think the media focused on that. And it allowed us to concentrate on playing. I think it was a great strategy. The focus was on him, on what had happened and we were calm”
Cortizo admires Messi. In fact, after the revenge match, which did have Messi on the playing field, the Mexican posted photos of him with the Argentine on his Instagram account.