Big boys wanted to hit short, but super Lionel Messi, reveals cousin

Lionel Messi, Maxi Biancucchi

Lionel Messi's cousin, Maxi Biancucchi has revealed that the bigger boys in his Argentine neighbourhood wanted to beat up the current football icon because he was so good at the game.

Maxi recalled that the six-time Ballon d'Or winner was rather short, so the other boys would not want to play with him. "In the neighbourhood, he played with us...we were bigger than him and we would tell ourselves, "he's crazy, get him out because we are going to kill him.' They wanted to hit him, but he put up with it," Maxi told South American radio station, Ataque Futbolero.

"When he [Messi] was eight or nine, I would get up early on Saturdays to watch him play and he'd do impressive things [with the football]. I could not believe it," he added.

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