Lamine Yamal Recalls Lionel Messi's Surprising Words After World Cup Defeat

Amongst the chaos that broke out between Argentina and Spain’s soccer players after the final whistle was blown at Sunday’s World Cup final , two of the team’s most well-known players shared a sweet moment. An investigation has been launched after the losing team’s Leandro Paredes launched himself at Spain’s Gavi. Then, Nahuel Molina appeared to throw a punch at one of the Spain subs running on to join in with his team-mates’ celebrations. Tensions were particularly high as the game was set to be legendary soccer player Lionel Messi’s last appearance for his country in an international competition, so he was hoping to go out with a bang. Messi and Yamal shared an embrace. Credit: FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images The most important players on the pitch found eachother Setting an example of proper sportsmanship, Messi stayed out of the scrap and instead found Spain’s youngest player, 19-year-old Lamine Yamal, who is on track to match the Argentinian’s record as the only person to compete in six World Cups. The pair embraced and exchanged sweet words of encouragement, which Yamal shared with the media. He told Spanish publication Marca : “He’s the greatest player in history and someone I’ve always looked up to. After the match, I wanted to show him my respect. “He told me to keep following my path and that the future belongs to our generation. Those words are worth as much as the gold medal hanging around my neck. “If someone had told me a few years ago that I’d be here lifting the World Cup after playing against Lionel Messi, I would have thought they were crazy.” Messi was devastated about not winning his final World Cup News of the heartwarming interaction comes shortly after Messi took to Instagram to share his dismay at losing the last World Cup he plans to compete in. In the moving post, he wrote: “The pain is immense, and this wound will take time to heal. “But I also hold onto all the good things… The matches we turned around by giving it our all - moments that will remain in our memories forever - and the support of an entire country which, combined with this group’s hard work and effort, brought us back among the world’s elite once again. It is hard to fully appreciate our achievement right now, but this group reached two consecutive World Cup finals . “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for every greeting and message. Once again, we managed to unite as a country and stand together, sharing the immense pride of being Argentine. “I also want to congratulate Spain on winning the championship.” Featured image credit: FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images