The 11-year-old goalkeeper who met Lionel Messi while on holiday in Antigua has found fame on Instagram after the encounter.
Mackenzie O’Neill, from Kent, met the Barcelona legend while on holiday with his mother Anna, who filmed her son kicking a ball around with Messi and his son Thiago.
“I thought that a picture and a 15-second video would come to nothing,” Mackenzie told PA. “I used to have 85 followers and now I’ve got more than 3,500.
“It’s quite amazing but also a bit like, ‘give me a break!’ sometimes.”
Highlights of Mackenzie’s time with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner include an attempted nutmeg, which Messi “tapped away” and a save against La Liga’s all-time top goalscorer, of which Mackenzie said: “I had to dive and I tipped it to the corner of the pitch.”
“It’s something he’ll keep in his heart forever, and he deserves it as well,” Ms O’Neill, who was unaware of Messi’s celebrity initially, told PA.
“I heard him kicking a ball about and I just saw him with Messi, a couple of other kids and his young son, and I thought ‘this is incredible,’ so I had to take a video.
“I didn’t realise how massive it would become. I just took it for Mackenzie to treasure for the rest of his life.”
