He’s arguably the greatest footballer of all time, and he’s now been unexpectedly spotted at Hadrian’s Wall.
However, PSG and Argentina forward Lionel Messi wasn't doing tricks or mazy runs between milecastles, he had instead taken on the guise of a Roman soldier on an information board - at least according to one holidaymaker. Adam Page made the amusing discovery when walking a section of the Hadrian's Wall Path with his partner and parents.
Across four days, the group walked from Lanercost Priory to Corbridge, taking in Chesters Roman Fort and Corbridge Roman Town. But it was when they passed Turret 51B at Leahill near Birdoswald Roman Fort that Adam spotted the likeness of Lionel Messi.
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It was spotted on a board explaining how turrets, which were placed two to every Roman mile between larger milecastles, would have looked in around AD160, 38 years after construction on the wall began 1900 years ago. "Messi" was one of three soldiers in the image, with his likeness pictured smiling and sitting back laughing as another soldier wrote on the wall.
Adam, a communications co-ordinator at the University of Cambridge, said: "They have boards on all the turrets in front of Hadrian's Wall and we were stopping at every single one to see if there was anything different, and I thought it looked like Lionel Messi as one of the Roman soldiers. The main thing I was trying to work out was if it was Messi or Lewandowski, but I thought with that look of joy, the expression, it was definitely a footballer.
"I'd read a few boards by then and thought that's definitely a sticker that's been put on here, but I think it might have been deliberately put on the board itself. Maybe they were wondering what to put on it and just thought, we'll just put a footballer's face on it - I don't know."
The board is managed by English Heritage, who told ChronicleLive that the figure on the board resembling Lionel Messi was nothing more than a coincidence, and the image is definitely not him.
Do you think that the image looks like Lionel Messi? Let us know!
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