Newcastle and England defender Kieran Trippier has revealed just how hard it is to defend against Lionel Messi after coming up against the Argentina legend in La Liga with Atletico Madrid.
Trippier spent three years in the Spanish top flight with Atletico but says even manager Diego Simeone was at a loss when it came to coming up with a plan to try and stop Messi.
"You can't to be fair," he told GOAL during his appearance on Kit Collector. "It's funny because obviously Simeone was the manager [and] they are both Argentinian. Even he would say before the meetings, just basically 'pray.' You just can't do anything. You can't organise or set up to stop him because he's that unique."
Trippier was part of the Atletico side that lifted the 2020-21 La Liga title during his time with Simeone's side and says he learned an incredible amount from playing in a new country and a new league.
"Hopefully many more English players do it because I learned so much experience playing out there with Simeone," he added.
"I learned a lot about myself as well. Go out and enjoy the game, go and enjoy the life out in Spain, the food, the weather. It was an incredible couple of years."
Check out the full episode of Kit Collector with Kieran Tripper on GOAL'sYouTube channel.