Back to the International Newsfeed

Messi's cousin shows the less glamorous side of South American football

Maxi Biancucchi dreamed of starring for Newell's Old Boys as a kid just like his relative, but their careers took very different paths

Aside from Lionel Messi’s incomparable talents on the pitch, one of the truly unique traits that marks him out is his loyalty to Barcelona. The Argentine has played at the club ever since he arrived in Spain as a pint-sized wonderkid at 13, the Blaugrana stepping in to pay for the hormone treatments Newell’s Old Boys could no longer cover as his home nation was steeped in economic crisis.

While he may yet opt to finish his career where it all began in Newell’s, the contract extension signed by Messi at the start of the summer underlined his intention to continue pulling on the Barca shirt for the foreseeable future.