How Furious Messi confronted referees after Inter Miami’s loss to Los Angeles

Lionel Messi has been pictured invading the referees’ dressing room after his Inter Miami team lost 3-0 to Los Angeles FC in their opening Major League Soccer (MLS) encounter of the new season in the early hours of Sunday.

The 38-year-old Argentine was reportedly furious that referee Pierre-Luc Lauzière failed to call for fouls he suffered n the match.

In front of a record 75,000 crowd at the BMO Stadium, Los Angeles FC claimed a dominant victory over Inter Miami, the MLS champions, thanks to David Martínez’s first half opener, and second half strikes by Denis Bouanga and Nathan Ordaz.

Messi was brought down several times in the match but the referee failed to call majority of the fouls, allowing play to continue on most occasions. The referee awarded only three free kicks for fouls on Messi, a statistic that infuriated the World Cup winner at full-time.

Videos showed Messi trying to enter the referees’ dressing room, with teammate Lus Suarez pulling the Inter Miami captain back without success.

It has not been revealed if Messi had access to the referees, or the extent of the altercation in the referees’ dressing room.

The latest is another chapter in a string of confrontations between Messi and referees in recent years.

The former Barcelona maestro called referee Anderson Daronco a “coward” during a 2026 World Cup qualifier against Paraguay in November 2024, and yelled at another referee against Colombia in June last year.

He was also involved in an incident with referee Alexis Da Silva durng an MLS match against New York FC in February last year, and was fined an undisclosed amount for grabbing the neck of New York FC assistant coach Mehdi Ballouchy after the match.

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