Spain squad mock Gavi over Paredes clash in World Cup celebrations

Spanish players have turned Gavi’s heated on‐pitch clash with Argentina’s Leandro Paredes into a running joke during their World Cup title celebrations, teasing the young midfielder that he ended up “on the floor and eaten” while defending a team-mate.

The light-hearted scenes, shared live by Gavi on Instagram from inside the dressing room, have offered a revealing glimpse into the buoyant mood in the Spain camp following their World Cup triumph – and how a controversial flashpoint in the final has quickly become dressing-room comedy material.

Flashpoint after the final whistle

Spanish newspaper AS reported that some of the most contentious moments of the match actually came after the referee’s final whistle, when tempers briefly flared between Leandro Paredes and Spain defender Eric Garcia.

The altercation, described as one of the most debated incidents of the game, began as a confrontation between Paredes and Garcia before Gavi stepped in to back his fellow Spaniard.

During the scuffle, the Barcelona midfielder was shoved by the Argentina player and tumbled to the turf – an image that was rapidly clipped and shared across social media platforms, drawing widespread comment and sparking debates among supporters online.

Viral incident becomes dressing-room joke

What might have lingered as a source of tension within the squad has instead been recast as a source of amusement during Spain’s celebrations.

Far from being angry about the clash, Spain’s players seized on the moment as comic material once they returned to the dressing room, using it to tease Gavi amid the jubilation of winning the World Cup.

In a live video broadcast by Gavi on his Instagram account, several Spain players can be seen and heard joking with the 19‐year‐old about his confrontation with Paredes.

At one point, over laughter in the background, one team‐mate is heard telling him: “اصمت يا احمق، لقد طرحوك ارضا واكلوك” – which translates as: “Shut up, you fool, they put you on the ground and ate you.”

The remark was a pointed – and playful – reference to Gavi being knocked over by Paredes in the late-game tussle.

Sign of unity and relaxed mood

Rather than dwelling on the aggression of the incident or allowing it to sour the post-match atmosphere, Spain’s players appear to have embraced it as part of the drama of a World Cup final and swiftly turned it into a shared in-joke.

The episode underlines the sense of unity and relaxed confidence currently surrounding the Spain squad. What had been a controversial scene, replayed and dissected online in the hours after the match, has been reframed within the team as a humorous moment that reinforces their togetherness.

By joking with Gavi and reliving the confrontation in a playful way, senior and junior players alike showed that tensions from the pitch had not carried over into the dressing room. Instead, the squad opted to celebrate their victory with banter and laughter – even at the expense of one of their own, who briefly found himself on the wrong end of a shove from Argentina’s Paredes.

The viral clip of Gavi’s live stream, coupled with the earlier footage of the push that sent him to the ground, has ensured the midfielder remains at the centre of one of the most talked-about subplots of the World Cup final – but inside the Spain camp, it is now remembered less as a flash of anger and more as a punchline.