Lionel Messi was forced to apologize after St. Petersburg's Zenit sniper Sebastian Driussi confused him with an ordinary photo-hungry fan.
The Barcelona superstar is currently in Russia, where he played a friendly match against the future World Cup hosts.
Before the match, the 30-year-old forward was taking his usual photos and signing autographs when a representative of the Russian club approached him.
Driussi later shared a photo on the social network Instagram with the caption "Thank you for the photo, my IDOL Leo Messi."
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner recognized the Zenit player and apologized some time later. However, while talking to Fox Sports Argentina, Messi confirmed that he really knows Driussi.
"I felt bad for not recognizing him at the time because I do know him. I know who he is," said the Barca leader.
"When he asked me for a photo, I thought he was just one of those guys who always wait for photos."
"When I saw the photo on Instagram, I apologized to him. We had exchanged messages through another person before and we visit the same tattoo artist."
Gracias por la foto IDOLO @leomessi
A post shared by Sebastian Driussi (@sebadriussi.11) on Nov 7, 2017 at 3:47am PST
