Despite enjoying a glittering career, the name Jerome Boateng will forever be associated with one of his more embarrassing moments on a football pitch. The 31-year-old may have won the World Cup, seven Bundesliga titles and a Champions League. Yet when future generations Google the Bayern Munich defender, they're likely to come across, first and foremost, a meme. It's now been five years since Lionel Messi turned him inside out and sent him tumbling to the turf in one of the Argentine's finest European moments. The Barcelona forward ran at Boateng with such bamboozling brilliance that he actually ended up face-down on the pitch. The phrase 'made him eat grass' was made for it. Messi finished it all off by lobbing Manuel Neuer.If, by some miraculous intervention, you don't remember this act of immense cruelty, you can watch it again below:
The rest of the world has not forgotten, however, and when Boateng decided to do a Twitter Q&A, it was inevitable that the question was going to come up.
One fan asked: "What was going through your head when Messi did THAT to you. You know what I'm talking about #AskJerome."
And to his credit, Boateng acknowledged the tweet with a valid point: "Honestly I would love to see each one of you defending against Messi."
Touché.
Messi scored two goals that night with Neymar adding the icing on the cake in injury time to seal a 3-0 win for the hosts at Camp Nou.
Bayern restored some self-respect by winning the second leg but still lost on aggregate. It's a shame for Boateng there was no re-gaining any of his dignity - that poor man and his ankles.
Boateng is absolutely right, of course, and he's far from Messi's only victim. Unfortunately, he's arguably one of the more high-profile ones, though, which meant he's been rinsed on the internet ever since.