“It was very special that Leo would say that. For me, it’s like winning a trophy.”
Ahead of their match against Real Madrid in the Spanish Supercopa tonight, RCD Mallorca right-back Pablo Maffeo is telling The Athletic how he felt when he heard that Lionel Messi had named him as his hardest-ever opponent.
Messi was basing his answer on his experience during a match in September 2017, when Maffeo was just 20 years old and playing his first season of top-flight football, for Girona. Messi was a decade older and close to the peak of his powers: he scored 34 goals in 36 games as Barca won the La Liga title that season.
But Messi was frustrated that day. Maffeo stuck to him like a limpet, disrupting Messi’s rhythm with regular physical challenges. Barcelona won 3-0 (Girona helped with two own goals) but Messi, now at Inter Miami, did not score, and clearly the game stuck in his mind.
“Pablo Maffeo, when he was at Girona, was the hardest defender I’ve ever faced,” Messi told DAZN three years later. “I’ve never been one to complain. I believe that physical contact is part of football.”
When reminded of the comment, Maffeo, who played for Spain up to under-21 level but was called up to Argentina at senior level, says with a smile: “It’s the best recognition from the best player in history. We lost that game, but the experience will always mark my life.”
Maffeo tugs Lionel Messi’s shirt in that match in 2017 (Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images)
Born in July 1997 in the Barcelona suburb of San Juan Despi, Maffeo entered Espanyol’s youth system at age six. He had already played for Spain’s under-16 international side and Espanyol’s B team in Spain’s semi-professional third tier by the time he joined Manchester City in 2013 aged 15.
“It was hard, at 15 you’re very young and not mentally prepared,” Maffeo says. “But it makes you more mature and stronger, a step ahead of other people at the same age.”
Team-mates in City’s UEFA Youth League team which reached the 2014-15 quarter-finals included fellow Spaniards Aleix Garcia (now at Bayer Leverkusen), Brahim Diaz (Real Madrid), Manu Garcia (Aris Salonika) and Jose Pozo (Karmiotissa). As he progressed to City’s under-21 and under-23 teams, he also played with compatriots Angelino (Galatasaray) and Paolo Fernandez (AEK Athens).
City manager Pep Guardiola gave Maffeo his senior debut aged 19 in an August 2016 Champions League qualifier against Steaua Bucharest. “Being surrounded by great players helps you to improve every day,” he says of his time at City. “It was like going to university, but in football.”
Maffeo confronting Leicester’s Hamza Choudhury while playing for Manchester City’s youth team in 2015 (David Rogers/Getty Images)
Maffeo only made two other starts for City: against Celtic in the UCL group stages and Manchester United in the League Cup. None of the Spanish prospects who followed him to City — of which there were over a dozen — ever really established themselves in Guardiola’s first team. Pedro Porro (now at Tottenham), Eric Garcia (Barcelona) and Adrian Bernabe (Parma) had similar experiences to Maffeo.
“It’s very difficult at a club like Manchester City or a Barca or a Real Madrid,” Maffeo says. “We all went there to learn, to take steps forward. These clubs have such financial power and they need immediate performance. But I’d not change anything. I’ve great memories of Espanyol, but I needed to go to City, to become a player. I don’t regret it.”
In January 2016, Maffeo started the first of three loan spells at City Football Group (CFG) sister club Girona. He helped the Catalan side to a first-ever promotion to the Primera Division in 2017. Then established himself as a Primera Division player with the man-marking job on Messi and an assist in a 2-1 win over Real Madrid at Montilivi.
“At Girona, I found some stability,” Maffeo says. “I was still very young, but there was a group and a team to help you, so everything was easier. I still follow them very closely and have many friends there.”
Maffeo making his Man City debut against Steaua Bucharest in August 2016 (Anthony Devlin/AFP/Getty Images)
In summer 2018, City sold Maffeo to Stuttgart for €9million (£7.5m at current exchange rates). However, he only played nine games for the Bundesliga side and never really settled in Germany. Instead, he was first loaned back to Girona, then to SD Huesca, then to Mallorca in July 2021.
“Looking back now, when I went to Stuttgart, I don’t feel I had control,” he says. “I thought back then I did, but there were many interests involved. They sent me there. Being so young, you don’t have the maturity to say, ‘I’m the player, I need to be in charge (of my own career)’. Now I’d not let it happen.”
Maffeo’s loan spell at Mallorca went well enough for the Balearic Islanders to transfer him permanently in July 2022 for a fee of €3m. He soon established himself in the team under coach Javier Aguirre, who is now in charge of the Mexico national team, as Mallorca established themselves in the Primera. Last season, they reached a first Copa del Rey final in two decades, showing progress on and off the pitch under the presidency of American Andy Kohlberg.
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“Each season in Mallorca has been good, I’ve had stability here, with friends and family very close,” Maffeo says. “The team and the club are growing a lot. The stadium has been refurbished, the training ground has new facilities. Higher-quality players are coming here. ”
Maffeo’s own progress was recognised when he was called up by Messi’s Argentina national team in November 2023 — an Argentine mother and Italian father meant he could play for three different countries.
Maffeo, second from left, with his Argentina team-mates in 2023 (Alejandro Pagni/AFP/Getty Images)
Although he trained with Messi and other World Cup winners including Angel Di Maria, Rodrigo De Paul and Julian Alvarez, coach Lionel Scaloni left Maffeo on the bench for both games during that international break and he has not been called up since.
“To share a dressing room with Messi is huge,” Maffeo says. “Just training with him, you feel privileged. I was really happy there, they received me really well. Scaloni decided not to pick me, but I’ve no intention of changing, even if Spain or Italy call me. I’m still looking to keep playing well so Argentina might call me again.”
Maffeo’s reputation as a tough man-marker has grown through often feisty and sometimes controversial duels with Madrid’s Vinicius Junior.
“Vinicius is one of the best players in the world,” Maffeo says. “So you’ve got to be very focused. You can’t compare him with Messi, as nobody can be compared to Messi. But he’s very tough to mark.”
When Mallorca beat Madrid 1-0 in San Moix in February 2023, the game was marred by racist abuse aimed at Vinicius from the stands. A complaint by La Liga led to a criminal case against one individual who was sentenced to one year (suspended) in jail in September 2024. The individual, who was also convicted of racially abusing winger Samuel Chukwueze when Villarreal visited San Moix, was also banned from all sporting stadiums for three years.
Maffeo’s clashes with Vinicius Jr during that 2023 game included the defender making a ‘crybaby’ gesture when the Brazilian complained to the referee about one particularly robust challenge.
Maffeo and Vinicius Junior continued their rivalry in 2024 (Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
“Arguments on the pitch are one thing, but racism is something completely different,” Maffeo says now. “You can never cross that line.”
The ‘crybaby’ gesture was recalled by Madrid supporters when Mallorca lost last season’s Copa del Rey final on penalties to Bilbao’s Athletic Club and a disappointed Maffeo was in tears afterwards. Abuse from some Madrid fans posted online prompted Maffeo to close his X account and limit messages on his Instagram profile.
“They attacked my daughter, so before I lost control I decided to close it and move on,” he says. “(But) you cannot compare that to racism. Racism is very ugly.
“All players, referees, clubs — we are showing our support to (Vinicius Jr) and our condemnation of all the people who do it. There are always fools in every stadium. But they have to be exposed and condemned.”
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Last summer saw ex-Osasuna coach Jagoba Arrasate replace Aguirre as Mallorca manager. With 30 points from the first 19 La Liga games, they sit sixth at the halfway point of the season.
“With Javier, the aim was to avoid relegation, so we were strong in defence,” Maffeo says. “Now Jagoba, and the team, can use that base and strengthen the attacking side. It’s natural, as the club continues to grow, taking more steps forward.”
Maffeo playing for Mallorca this season (Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
Less positive was last weekend’s shock 3-0 Copa del Rey last-32 defeat at Segunda Federacion (fourth tier) Pontevedra, after which Arrasate denied that his team had already been thinking about their trip to play this week’s Spanish Supercopa.
Maffeo doesn’t argue with that but does say that the competition is a potentially once-in-a-career opportunity for many of Mallorca’s squad.
“We want to win the Supercopa, it’ll be difficult, but that’s our aim,” he says. “Despite our setback in the Copa, we’re in good form, confident. Nobody here has played a Supercopa before. So it’s maybe more exciting for us than for Madrid or Barcelona.”
The Spanish Supercopa was traditionally played in Spain in August, home and away between the previous year’s Liga and Copa winners. It was moved to Saudi Arabia in 2019, gaining a ‘final-four’ format, as part of a €40million deal with the Saudi authorities, arranged with former federation president Luis Rubiales and brokered by ex-Barcelona defender Gerard Pique.
“Personally, I’d prefer not to go to Arabia to play,” Maffeo says. “It’s the Spanish Supercopa, nothing to do with Arabia. That decision was for the interests of others.”
Asked if Mallorca’s players have discussed issues such as basic human rights in Saudi Arabia, or repression and discrimination against women and LGBT+ people, Maffeo says: “The Spanish Supercopa should be played in Spain, not for my political views or women’s rights or nothing like that. Those issues are not for me to discuss. If it was China or the United States, I’d say the same. I’d like to play the Spanish Supercopa in Spain, so all our fans can go, all my family, and my friends.”
Maffeo competing with Kylian Mbappe in August (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)
Maffeo spoke to The Athletic the day after Vinicius was sent off for pushing over Valencia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski, raising the possibility of a suspension covering the Supercopa. However, a two-game La Liga-only ban means the Brazilian can play the semi-final against Mallorca in Jeddah.
“Vinicius not playing would be better for us,” Maffeo said. “But if he plays, it’ll be just like any other opponent, any other game. We’ve had our things (in the past), but they were sorted out, or at least they were for me, and I think for him too.”
When Maffeo sat down with The Athletic, there was uncertainty over whether Barcelona midfielder Dani Olmo would be able to play in the competition after La Liga and the Spanish Federation (RFEF) said he could not be registered for the second half of the season. But last night the Spanish government overruled La Liga and the Spanish FA, granting temporary permission for Olmo to play, meaning he could now feature in Sunday’s final.
“It’s the same as Vinicius, if we reach the final and Olmo does not play, then better for us,” Maffeo says. “But if Olmo does not play, or Vinicius, there is still (Kylian) Mbappe or Raphinha. So it will be difficult for us.”
(Top photo: Maffeo and Messi in 2021; by David Ramos via Getty Images)
