Inter Milan striker Thuram: Messi gave me his boots for Barcelona training

Thuram was coached at La Masia when his father, Lillian Thuram, was playing for Barca.

He recalled: “I went to training and left my boots at home and the player whose shoe size was closest to mine was Lionel Messi.

“At the time, Messi was already the incredible player he is now, but for me, who was just a kid, he was one of my father's teammates who lent me a pair of boots to go to training.”

Messi, a four-time Champions League winner with Barça, even let Marcus keep those boots. However, in a somewhat reckless decision, he gave them to one of his teammates from the youth team at Olympique de Neuilly.

“I saw the reaction of one of my best friends at the time. He was absolutely crazy when he saw the boots, so I said to him,” Marcus explains. “‘If you like them that much, you can keep them,’ and I gave them to him.”