When asked about his relationship with Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi revealed that the two haven’t spoken since professional circumstances last required them to. But he said this in an interesting way.

From ESPNFC:

“We haven’t spoken in a long time, since the World Cup [2010] we may have crossed paths once or twice,” Messi said in Spanish on Egyptian TV. “He has his life, his things and I have mine. We haven’t spoken at all. Considering that we don’t speak to each other, I have a great relationship with him.”

Though almost certainly unintentional, that last sentence is a pretty wicked burn and amusing coming from someone like Messi, who is almost superhumanly inoffensive. It also got me thinking about some other unintentional burns Messi might say. Here are a few…

On Cristiano Ronaldo: “We don’t have a rivalry at all. Nothing he does bothers me. When he wins something, I just think ‘Aww, good for him.'”

On Gonzalo Higuain: “If he ever needs me to score an easy goal in a major cup final to cement his legacy, I would still do it for him.”

On Brazil: “A lot of teams lose 7-1. Real Madrid beat Celta Vigo 7-1 this season. So they’re not alone.”

On the Spanish tax authorities: “I hope they do nice things with all the extra money they made me give them. I was just going to give it to charity and use it to make people’s lives better, but I’m sure they’ll do something almost as good with it, too.”

On Pele: “He was so lucky to be able to play with Garrincha. I’m very jealous of him just for that one reason.”