I taught Messi — Neymar reveals how he trained Inter Miami star
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Paris Saint-Germain Training Session - Qatar Winter Tour 2023 Day 1 Paris Saint-Germain s Lionel Messi (R) and Neymar Jr (L) attend a team training session at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha ,Qatar on 18 January 2023 || Image credit: Imago

I taught Messi — Neymar reveals how he trained Inter Miami star

Faruq Ibrahim 14:43 - 28.02.2025

Neymar revealed how he helped Lionel Messi develop a particular technique.

Santos star Neymar recently revealed that he taught Lionel Messi's the penalty technique that became a contributing factor to Argentina's World Cup triumph. 

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What happened 

Lionel Messi, despite his status as one of the greatest footballers in history, has not been the most reliable penalty taker in his career. 

With less than an 80% success rate and big misses from the spot throughout his career—the misses against Chelsea in Barcelona's Champions League exit and Chile in Argentina’s Copa America final defeat come to mind—fans are not always filled with confidence when the diminutive Argentine steps up to the spot. 

However, in 2022, he clinched the greatest achievement of his career, partly due to his excellence from the penalty spot. Despite his stuttering start, missing a penalty in the opening day defeat to Saudi Arabia that could certainly be debilitating psychologically, Messi scored all six penalties he took during the rest of the competition. 

Former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain team-mates Neymar (L) and Lionel Messi
Former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain team-mates Neymar (L) and Lionel Messi

Four in regular play, two in shootouts (against the Netherlands and France), Messi was unstoppable, coming up clutch from the spot and silencing his critics as he led the Albiceleste to their third World Championship. 

What Neymar said 

Fans noticed something different in Messi during the tournament; his penalty technique was different, more goalkeeper-reliant. 

There have been speculations he picked it up from Neymar—as they had United at Paris Saint-Germain at the time—who has a similar technique and was formidable from 12 yards. 

The Brazilian all but confirmed what many fans guessed in his recent interview, revealing that he taught Messi a penalty technique during a training session at PSG. 

“I helped Messi take penalties,” Neymar told Podpah per Fabrizio Romano. “We were in training, he asked me... How do you take penalties like that?

“I was like, Are you crazy? You’re Messi; if I can do it, you can too. Then I taught him, and he trained.”.

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