Lionel Messi used to play as Chelsea on Fifa, reveals former team-mate Pablo Zabaleta
The Argentina star is famous for his video game-esque dribbling and shooting but he chose to play with the Premier League giants rather than his own Barcelona team
LIONEL MESSI used to play with Chelsea on Fifa, according to Argentina team-mate Pablo Zabaleta.
The pair used to play against each other on the pitch and online when Zabaleta was at Espanyol, Barcelona's city rivals.
The West Ham defender spent three years at the Spanish club before joining Manchester City in 2008 but revealed the Barcelona star would often choose the west London club.
Speaking to the BBC, Zabaleta said: "I was better at PlayStation than Messi. He used to play with Chelsea a lot.
"I used to live in Barcelona city and he was living 30 minutes outside. We were playing on the internet."
But Messi and Chelsea never seemed to be a perfect match.
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Messi has played more Champions League minutes against Chelsea than any other side, a total of 835 minutes spanning across 10 matches.
But he did not find the net in the first 730 minutes against the Stamford Bridge club until last season, where he netted three times across the Champions League Round of 16 tie.
Messi also spoke out about Chelsea when he was just 19, claiming the hatred of Chelsea was stronger than that of Real Madrid for some Barca stars.
He told the News of the World: "There are players here who hate Chelsea more than Real Madrid. I never thought I would hear myself say that.
"I also never thought I would see something worse than the Boca and River Plate rivalry or Brazil v Argentina – but this is.
";We would rather play Arsenal, Manchester United or anyone else than be on the pitch with Chelsea."
Messi was accused by then-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho of deliberately trying to get Chelsea defender Asier Del Horno sent off in 2006.
However, it seems Messi did have a secret admiration for the club who were bossing the Premier League at the time with Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and co in their squad when he played Fifa with Zabaleta.