‘Serbian Messi’ vows to show FC Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal ‘I’m better’

On By Littum

Andrija Maksimovic, who is known as ‘Serbian (Lionel) Messi’, have sworn to show he is “better” than FC Barcelona star Lamine Yamal when his side Red Star Belgrade host the Catalans in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Like Lamine in Spain and beyond, Maksimovic is often compared to Messi in his homeland and acknowledged the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner’s influence during a pre-match press conference in Belgrade on Tuesday afternoon.

As Lamine often does, however, he tried to brush aside comparisons, saying that while “Messi is my idol … I’d like to be remembered as Andrija Maksimovic”.

Maksimovic was also born in 2007 and is therefore 17 years old, just like Barca right wing Lamine, who last week won France Football’s Kopa Trophy for the best male under-21 footballer.

He insisted he is “not nervous” and “happy to play against a big team like Barcelona”.

And while he said Lamine is “a great player” who he has already met in the past, a cocky Maksimovic promised that “I will go out on the pitch to show that I am better than him”.

“There’s also (Pau) Cubarsi. They’re both my age. I hope we can change shirts when the game is over,” Maksimovic added further.

As for Red Stars manager Vladan Milojevic, he is aware that his Barca men will face one of the best in-form teams in Europe.

“Barcelona hardly make any mistakes, but we will do everything to counter their game,” Milojevic said at his own press conference.

“We are playing against the best team in Europe. They are a team that plays at the highest level in all phases of the game. They play with inspiration, enthusiasm and a lot of confidence. (Hansi) Flick has managed to make this team believe in themselves even.”

While Red Star may, with all due respect, struggle to match Flick’s high flyers for quality, a key factor could be a hostile atmosphere in the stadium known as the “Little Maracana” – in a nod to the iconic Rio de Janeiro ground.

“The atmosphere will be great, Barcelona always play with full stadiums, but tomorrow you will see how our fans are,” warned Milojevic. “It’s up to us to show what we know and enjoy the atmosphere.”