Kyle Walker has clarified his ‘nobody here is Messi’ comments aimed at Joao Felix during the Serie A clash against Napoli.
Walker is currently on loan at AC Milan from English Premier League side Man City. The defender was filmed in the tunnel airing his thoughts as the teams went in at the interval.
The Rossoneri were 2-0 down at that stage and went on to lose the match 2-1 on March 30. Matteo Politano and Romelu Lukaku scored for Gli Azzurri with Luka Jovic netting for Sergio Conceicao’s men late on.
Much was made of Walker’s comments at the time. The England international is typically more reserved but he didn’t hold back after Milan’s disappointing first-half.
Kyle Walker Clarifies Messi Comments
“It wasn’t me saying to Joao ‘you’re not Messi, pass the ball’. It was saying ‘let’s make sure we have a process’. He agreed with me and said we need to have more passes and a bit more control,” he said on the BBC’s Kyle Walker Podcast.
“I didn’t just say it to Joao. I didn’t know there was a camera there. But I still wouldn’t have changed anything I did say,” he added.
Walker then went on to talk about how only a handful of the world’s best players have the ability to single-handedly change a game. Strangely, the 34-year-old didn’t include Messi.
“The comment I said was nobody is Messi. That’s in every team in the world bar certain individuals who can turn a game on its head when they want to.
“I give them their plaudits – it’s Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Mo Salah and Ousmane Dembele, who has been on fire since the start of the year.
“Apart from that you say it’s a team game.”
Walker has featured ten times for Milan since making his loan switch from Manchester City in January. He has missed the last round of fixtures after undergoing surgery on an injured elbow but has recently returned to training.
