In lesser than a fortnight of airing his scandalous interview with ex-Manchester United star, Cristiano Ronaldo, Piers Morgan has come to the jersey number 7’s defence once again on Twitter.
As Argentina battled for their place in the top 16 of the FIFA World Cup against Australia, Lionel Messi achieved a feat few players can boast of – 1000 pro-football games.
And to top it off, he scored his career’s 789th goal in a spectacular fashion, slipping the ball through the legs of opposition defenders into the far bottom corner.
Now, football pundits and successful names in the sport, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Lineker, Pablo Zabaleta and Alan Shearer, who were commentating for BBC on the game, adorned the Argentinian skipper for single-handedly carrying the team into the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
While fans of the jersey number 10 were elated to hear their idol being adorned with exaltations, Piers Morgan didn’t take too well to it.
To give you a little context, Piers Morgan and Cristiano Ronaldo have a relationship that found its roots in the striker’s first stint at Old Trafford.
At the time, Morgan was entirely unimpressed with the bratty attitude displayed by Sir Alex Ferguson‘s golden child. And yet, their friendship began when CR7 slid into the journalist’s DMs on Instagram.
After an interview in 2019 with Cristiano, Morgan and the footballer struck up a bromance that has been on public display since.
With Morgan having taken a U-turn with respect to his decade-old opinion about Ronaldo, he has since been a persistent supporter of the player.
And then, on 16th November 2022, Morgan aired one of the most controversial interviews in the world of football, titled ‘Piers Morgan: Uncensored” with the Manchester United star.
The supposed revelations made by Ronaldo in that interview were inconceivable and Morgan put on a brave face to help Ronaldo voice his issues at Old Trafford since returning.
Since his disgraceful exit from the club, a large portion of the footballing community has been at odds with the 37-year-old Portuguese. Therefore, understandably, it’s a tense atmosphere for CR7 supporters all over the world and Morgan isn’t an exception.
On the flip side, Gary Lineker is to Lionel Messi what Piers Morgan is to Cristiano Ronaldo and has often publicly sided and supported the 34-year-old Argentinian.
So, while his commentary during the Argentina-Australia game was music for Argentinian fans, it struck a sensitive nerve for Morgan. And suffice it to say that it got really ugly between the two journalists.
Morgan took to Twitter to express his outrage about how, according to him, Messi was receiving undue attention for his performance. He said, ‘The relentless Messi fangirling by the whole BBC punditry team is getting excruciatingly obsequious. Getting worried one of them might have an “accident” in the studio. Calm yourselves, lads. He had a good game against an average side. See how he does against a good team.’
Gary Lineker, however, did not let the dig slide. Lineker simply did not make any attempt to hide his contempt for the journalist in CR7’s camp and tweeted, ‘Good to see you emerge briefly from deep inside the bowels of Ronaldo to express your opinion.’
Twitter fans were quick to point out that what Lineker did was not very different to what Morgan does for CR7 and that the latter had congratulated the Portuguese captain on a goal that was later officially credited to Bruno.
Was Morgan justified in calling out the BBC commentators? I don’t believe so. But then again, the passion fans feel for their idols is unique. And this is something that will continue to happen as long as the sport exists.
