Arda Guler fires back at Dominik Szoboszlai after Real Madrid jibe

Real Madrid’s Arda Guler has extended his ongoing feud with Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai after the pair clashed while representing their respective countries in the UEFA Nations League.

Guler’s Turkey sent a Hungary side captained by Szoboszlai down to League B after romping to a 6-1 aggregate victory across two legs of their promotion-relegation play-off this month.

The Madrid playmaker was only eligible to appear in the second leg in Budapest on Sunday after watching his side win the initial tie 3-1 in Istanbul. Guler scored the second goal in a 3-0 victory, capping off a move which began with Szoboszlai giving the ball away. As the Turkish scorer celebrated by the corner flag, Hungary’s skipper was spotted beating the turf in frustration.

The pair clashed on the pitch, with Guler motioning for Szoboszlai to stop talking. However, the Liverpool midfielder took to social media after the match to send another message, writing just “1088” – the number of minutes which Guler has been limited to at Real Madrid this season.

Unimpressed with this subtle jibe, which highlights the restricted playing opportunities that have prompted widespread transfer speculation, Guler took to Instagram himself.

🚨 Arda Güler to Szoboszlai: “This guy is a joke. Isn't 6 goals enough to shut you up?”. pic.twitter.com/iCxFNuzuU2

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 24, 2025

“This guy is a joke,” Guler wrote beneath an image of himself and Szoboszlai. “Isn’t 6 goals enough to shut you up” followed by a shushing emoji.

The post has also been edited to include a doctored image of the scoreboard from Sunday’s match, which not only shows Guler’s name beneath the Turkey badge, but includes “Szoboszlai – 1 Instagram comment” on Hungary’s side.

This is not the first time that Guler and Szoboszlai have squared up. In the only previously senior meeting between the pair, overlapping for less than half an hour when Hungary earned a 1-0 win over Turkey during an international friendly in March 2024, Szoboszlai scored the only goal of that game. Guler was pictured remonstrating with the Liverpool midfielder during a fractious contest, but got nothing more than a smirk on that occasion.

Dominik Szoboszlai & Arda guler
#HUNvTUR pic.twitter.com/QJ43P9Wrhr

— Q (@HQwallp) March 22, 2024