Celtic fans have forced a leading Scottish tabloid to delete a tweet after posting a tongue-in-mouth story regarding Rangers links to Argentina legend and World Cup winner Lionel Messi.
The 35-year-old attacker enjoyed his crowning moment in football by leading Argentina to a legendary penalty shoot-out victory over France after a pulsating 3-3 draw.
Scoring two goals of his own in the game, Lionel Messi was also crowned player of the tournament and to many, the World Cup win crowns the attacker at the game’s greatest ever player.
But as newspapers everywhere sought out an angle to link their readership into the biggest story from around the globe, the Herald sarcastically linked Rangers to the match via Lionel Messi.
Celtic fan backlash to Rangers Lionel Messi story
Initially titled “Former Rangers target Lionel Messi scores World Cup winner”, the only thing which is technically incorrect is the winner part.
But whilst anyone with a brain cell knows that this is a tongue-in-cheek almost satirical story which pokes fun at digital tabloid news, far be it from Celtic fans to take the entire thing personally.
The Herald have since changed the title of the article to “Old Firm Facts on Lionel Messi, World Cup and Rangers link” to help placate the Celtic fans who loathed the suggestion Rangers could be shoehorned into the story.
The newspaper has also deleted the original tweet from their social media after it attracted negative attention from our rivals to the east.
As for the link itself, it is well known that Rangers tried to sign Messi on a season-long loan from Barcelona when he was 18-years-old.
As explained by Sky Sports, Alex McLeish was interested in a move for the Argentina attacker as a teenager but that even then Barca weren’t letting him go anywhere.
What a shame; if only Lionel Messi had joined Rangers then the “please love us” Celtic brigade would have something genuine to cry about after Argentina lifted the World Cup.
Meanwhile, Rangers may be on red alert as one player extensively linked to the club falls out with his current side.
