Messi and Bojan are 4th cousins? Players you probably never knew were related

There are certain families for whom playing football at an exceptionally high level seems to just come naturally.

Successful footballing names such as Charlton (Sir Bobby and Jack), Laudrup (Michael and Brian), Neville (Gary and Phil), De Boer (Frank and Ronald) and Toure (Yaya and Kolo) have all left their indelible mark on the beautiful game.

Sometimes football families are spread across generations too. Just think of these famous footballing father and son duos; Cesare and Paolo Maldini, Johan and Jordi Cruyff, Carles and Sergio Busquets and, of course, Abedi Pele and his two boys Andre and Jordan Ayew.

The aforementioned names are all famous across the football globe for the successes they enjoyed on the pitch and anyone who knows a thing or two about football is well aware of their family connections.

However, there are loads of other relations playing the game at an elite level, ranging from brothers to cousins to fathers to the slightly more tenuous link of brothers in law.

Here are some players who you may be surprised are related (even if just a little bit).

Luka Modric and Mark Viduka - cousins

Jay-Jay Okocha and Alex Iwobi - uncle and nephew

Lionel Messi and Bojan Krkic - fourth cousins

Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jerome Boateng - half-brothers

Leroy Fer and Patrick van Aanholt - cousins

Gini Wijnaldum and Royston Drenthe - cousins

Carl Cort, Leon Cort and Ruben Loftus-Cheek - half-brothers

Lomana and Kazenga LuaLua (brothers) - cousins to Yannick Bolasie

Juninho Paulista and Philippe Coutinho - distant cousins

Didier Drogba and Olivier Tebily - cousins

Some of these are genuinely bizarre.

Juninho Paulista and Philippe Coutinho's relation is fitting, considering Coutinho overtake Juninho to become the highest scoring Brazilian in Premier League history.

The duo are very distant cousins are were also linked together on the pitch for some time.

Messi and Bojan burst onto the scene in the mid-2000's at Barcelona and while Messi has gone on to become one of the world's greatest players, Bojan slipped out of the limelight.

He currently plays his football for Montreal Impact in MLS and the Spaniard himself has admitted he struggled being compared to Messi.

"In the end, I know my qualities and I know I'm not Messi. I'm Bojan," he told The Guardian per Goal.

"If people want to say 'This guy was not the new Messi', okay, yeah I was not the new Messi."

What do you think is the most bizarre football relation?

Let us know in the comments below.