Former Barcelona defender Jean-Clair Todibo has revealed that Barcelona enforced a bizarre rule during his time at the club to protect Lionel Messi.
23-year-old Todibo only made four appearances during his time at Barcelona, joining from Toulouse in 2019.
However, he trained along some of the very best players, including World Cup winner Messi.
‘At Barcelona, we weren’t allowed to touch Leo Messi in training,’ he revealed.
Jean-Clair Todibo has revealed that Barcelona enforced a bizarre rule during his time at the club to protect Lionel Messi
Todibo only made four appearances during his time at Barcelona, joining from Toulouse in 2019
The current Nice defender said that he wasn’t allowed to touch Messi in Barcelona training
‘It sounds crazy, but it’s true. We had to be careful. It’s normal, he’s the best, you don’t want to hurt him.’
The rule may have come into play during the latter years of Messi’s career, as Thierry Henry previously revealed that Messi was often fouled in training.
Speaking in Rio Ferdinand’s autobiography in 2014, Henry opened up on Mesis’s reaction to being fouled in training and not being awarded a free-kick.
‘When the ball went back to his goalkeeper, he ran back and demanded the ball,’ Henry began.
‘The goalkeeper rolled him the ball, Messi then ran through the entire team to score in anger.’
Since then, it appears that a rule had been introduced to protect Barcelona’s star as Todibo wasn’t allowed to endanger Messi.
The defender would finally be allowed to tackle Messi when the pair moved to France, Todibo in 2021 (permanently), and his former team-mate a year later.
Todibo has flourished with Nice, who currently sit second in Ligue 1 – behind Messi’s former side PSG.
He has since been linked with a high-profile move to Manchester United.
