Man Utd ace and Ronaldo superfan Alejandro Garnacho responds to Lionel Messi accusations

Alejandro Garnacho has responded to claims that he snubbed Lionel Messi during the Copa America final. Argentina secured their third major trophy in four years after defeating Colombia in the showpiece match at Florida's Hard Rock Stadium earlier this month.

The night seemed set for disappointment for Messi, who was substituted due to an ankle injury after 66 minutes. Moments later, the 37-year-old Inter Miami star was seen crying on the bench, overwhelmed by both the physical pain and the emotional toll of being forced off in what was potentially his last international final.

However, the mood shifted when Lautaro Martinez scored the winning goal in the final eight minutes of extra time, securing Argentina's second consecutive Copa America title. Post-match, social media was awash with videos suggesting Garnacho, who spent all but 26 minutes of the tournament on Argentina's bench, repeatedly ignored Messi throughout the evening.

The Manchester United star was closest to the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner when the tears began, yet appeared to offer no comfort to his team-mate. Several other clips showed the 20-year-old walking past Messi during the post-match celebrations, seemingly refusing to embrace the legendary forward.

Accusations then began flying that Garnacho, who has declared an admiration for Messi's eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo more than once, was purposefully avoiding the ex-Barcelona superstar, but the player himself has now spoken out to rubbish those claims.

On Saturday, he responded to a post on X containing a video compilation of him supposedly ignoring Messi during and after the final by uploading a photo of his own. In it, he had an arm around Messi and the pair were smiling. He also captioned the post using the 'shrug' and 'facepalm' emojis.

Garnacho is one of few footballers who have played with both Messi and Ronaldo, having starred alongside the latter during his brief stint back at Old Trafford. He's made no secret of his love for Ronaldo, having emulated the 39-year-old's goal celebration in the past, but the notion that it's subsequently caused a rift between him and Messi is baseless.

The young forward has struggled to break into Argentina's first team with the likes of Messi, Martinez, Julian Alvarez and Angel Di Maria ahead of him in the pecking order, though the latter reckons it's only a matter of time before it happens.

"[Garnacho] is a very fast player, he has incredible ability," Di Maria said earlier this year. "He is going to gain it with experience and coming to the national team, it is a place where you learn a lot and continue to improve. It helped me a lot to grow technically in every way, it is spectacular.

"I think he will grow with experience as well. When I was young I wanted to make the play 30 times in the game. Over the years you realise that if you do it 10, but you do it better, it's worth it. He has a lot of future, a very big future. It depends on him, on his head, to be able to handle it. I don't have much to say, there's a reason he's playing for Manchester United."