Pablo Zabaleta's curious anecdote about sleepy Leo Messi
The West Ham defender spoke about his days living in Barcelona with Messi
Pablo Zabaleta revealed a curious story about Lionel Messi on Sky Sports, during a show in which he hosted a barbecue for some of his West Ham teammatrs.
Zabaleta and Messi, both from Argentina, developed a friendship when the former played for Espanyol in the Catalan city. The former Manchester City right-back knew the 18-year-old Messi as they had both played in the U20 World Cup with the Albiceleste winning it.
They shared many moments together and Zabaleta has explained one: "They [former club San Lorenzo] sold me to Espanyol in Barcelona so Messi and I happened to be in the same city. And we had lots of free time and went out a lot to eat.
"He used to eat and immediately fall asleep. He bought a house outside Barcelona in Castelldefels, a beautiful house in the mountains. But he also had a flat in the city centre. We went to eat, we got to the car and he fell asleep. I asked him: 'Leo, before you sleep, where do I take you?'"
The West Ham player continued: "Leo said 'To my house in Castelldefels,' and he fell asleep. We arrived at his house and I woke Leo up and he said: 'Not here! I told you my other house!'
"I replied: 'No no... I don't care. You can sleep out here. You can't do this to me!' No, of course I took him back. In my car I had €80 million worth of talent sat next to me!"
