In the high-stakes world of European football, even the most talented players aren’t immune to tactical discipline—and Joao Felix recently found himself on the receiving end of a blunt message from England international Kyle Walker.

During AC Milan’s 2-1 defeat, cameras caught Walker telling Felix, “Pass the ball, nobody here is Messi,” a moment that quickly went viral and sparked debate among fans and pundits alike.

Now, speaking on The Kyle Walker Podcast, the former Manchester City defender has provided clarity, as he claimed it wasn’t an insult, but a tactical reality.

“It wasn’t me saying to Joao, ‘you’re not Messi, pass the ball’,” Walker explained. “It was saying ‘let’s make sure we have a process’. He agreed with me and said we need to have more passes and a bit more control.”

Walker highlighted that only a select few players in the world can afford to take the game into their own hands consistently.

He went on:“The comment I said was nobody is Messi. That’s in every team in the world, bar certain individuals who can turn a game on its head. I give them their plaudits – it’s Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Mo Salah, and Ousmane Dembele, who has been on fire since the start of the year.”

Chelsea fans have seen flashes of brilliance from Felix, but consistency was lacking, as is now happening at AC Milan.

Walker suggests, without the status or output of a Messi, Mbappe or Salah, every player—no matter how stylish—must buy into the collective system.

Walker continued: “Apart from that, you say it’s a team game. What I was saying to Joao is [Rafael] Leao is fantastic – one of those players you can give the ball to and he can go past three, four, five players and put it in the top bin.

“At City, most of our joy over the last number of years was from a process. Everything was about knowing where you were on the pitch, working through passes.”

He concluded:“If you have a player like Messi, he can take on four players and score. It makes the game easier. But against good-level opposition like Napoli, I feel you need a process of passing the ball and wearing them down. Then the gaps appear. That was the conversation with Joao.”

If Felix returns to Chelsea, fans should hope he’s taken Walker’s message to heart. At a club desperate to return to the top, individual brilliance has its place—but only if it operates within a well-drilled team framework.