The incredibly petty beef between Dominik Szoboszlai and Arda Guler explained

03/24/2025 01:07 PM

Dominik Szoboszlai and Arda Guler have aimed some incredibly petty digs at each other after an unexpected beef developed between the two on international duty.

The Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielders were on opposing teams in the Nations League on Sunday, with Turkey beating Hungary 3-0 in Budapest.

That came after a 3-1 home win for the Turks, meaning they picked up a comprehensive 6-1 rout over two legs and secured a promotion to League A of the competition.

There had been some spice between the two players during the match, with Guler scoring Turkey’s second goal of the game and shushing Szoboszlai in celebration.

Clearly there had been some issue between the players on the field, with the 20-year-old riled up enough by the Liverpool man to celebrate right in his face.

A picture of Guler shushing Szoboszlai was posted by a Hungarian sports channel, with the caption: ‘Arda Guler told Dominik Szoboszlai to be quiet.’

The Hungary captain replied with a cryptic message which read: ‘1088.’

That reply will have been confusing to pretty much everybody, but it was quickly worked out that Szoboszlai is referring to the amount of minutes Guler has played this season for his club.

The youngster has been out of favour under Carlo Ancelotti and made just six starts in La Liga so far this campaign.

Szoboszlai clearly knew that was the case and looked up how many minutes his rival has played, with Transfermarkt having the figure at 1088.

The daft little spat did not end there, with Guler clearly being made aware of Szoboszlai’s comment and going to even greater lengths to fire back at the creative insult.

On a picture of him shushing the Hungary captain, Guler wrote: ‘This guy is a joke. Isn’t 6 goals enough to shut you up?’ with a shushing emoji to follow.

The Real Madrid man also went to the effort to mock up a scoresheet from Sunday’s game which suggested Turkey had managed three goals, while all Hungary had achieved was one Instagram comment from Szoboszlai.

Whether the 24-year-old Liverpool star will hit back is yet to be seen, but with Guler linked with a move away from Real Madrid, he will be hoping the Reds aren’t looking to snap up his new rival.

While Guler has struggled for game time for Real Madrid, Szoboszlai has become an important first team star for Liverpool under Arne Slot.

The Hungarian has made 27 Premier League appearances, 22 of which have been in the starting XI, while his Champions League campaign saw him make seven starts and nine appearances in total.

Hailing the former RB Leipzig man earlier this season, Slot said: ‘In my opinion, he is a bit underestimated. Not by me, but he doesn't always get the credits for the fact he is very important for this team, because his work-rate is un-be-lievable.

‘He just keeps on running with the highest intensity, and that is so important for a team that wants to compete for something.’