Drake’s string of defeats against short geniuses continues apace. Weeks after being publicly humiliated by the world’s greatest rapper, the 5ft 5in Kendrick Lamar, he has been publicly humiliated by the world’s greatest footballer, the 5ft 7in Lionel Messi.
The Canadian rapper posted on Instagram that he had bet $300,000 – to win $2.88m – that Les Rouges would beat Argentina in Tuesday’s Copa América semi-final. Messi duly scored his team’s second goal as Argentina beat Canada 2-0 to advance to Sunday’s Copa final, where they can retain the title they won in 2021.
After the game, Argentina’s social media team posted an image of Messi and Co celebrating their victory with the caption “Not like us”, the title of a diss track aimed at Drake by Lamar, which has been streamed nearly 500m times on Spotify and was the capstone on a public feud that most observers saw as the equivalent of a 7-0 thrashing by the Californian.
While Lamar has not yet commented on Argentina’s use of 4-4-2 under Lionel Scaloni, Messi has appeared in one of his songs. In The Hillbillies, which he recorded with his cousin Keem, Keem raps: “Critics sayin’ that I lost the plot, principles, yeah, I’d rather not, Messi, ’bout to come in hot”.
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Drake can attempt to win his money back when Canada play in Sunday’s third-place playoff, where they will face Colombia or Uruguay. The odds will be long again: Colombia are on a 27-match unbeaten streak and Uruguay have won the tournament 15 times.