Que miras bobo? The Messi phrase and Its meaning in english

Qué mirás bobo? Andá Pa'llá. The phrase that echoed through the entire Football World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Said but the captain of the Argentinean team, Lionel Messi, to Wout Weghorst, as a very dramatic match reached its end, with Argentina as the glorious victor of the quaterfinals.

The phrase became iconic to all Messi and Argentina fans. The internet and the markets soon flooded with memes and merchandise. Messi even trade marked the phrase. But, what did it really mean? For Argentinean speakers, this is not a question, but for the rest of the world, we need to explain it a little.

How it happened?

The Qatar world cup has recently launched the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ Official Film. In it, we can see a clip that finally reveals the behind the scenes of the interview that triggered this conversation and phrase.

In the clip below you will see Weghorst approaching Kun Aguero, Lautaro Martines, among other argentinean players, and the sneaky appearance of Wout as Messi was being interviews, who couldn't stop himself from his provocative attitude towards the winning team shouting "Eh, Messi, Eh, Messi"

Here is when Messi responded "Qué mirás bobo? Andá Pa'llá".

Que miras bobo, meaning in English

Bobo, means something similar to "Silly", so the first part of the phrase reads "What are you looking at silly?".

"Andá Pa'llá" comes with more social context, as Messi comes from the province of Santa Fe, where it is often seen that people would shorten and combine words. The meaning in spanish would be "Andá para allá", which translates to "Go over there", or better, "Go away".

The full translation then is "What are you looking at silly? Go away".