Lionel Messi paid tribute to Diego Maradona on Sunday with a goal celebration that came as a beautiful surprise to his Barcelona team-mates.
Former Barca and Argentina great Maradona died on Wednesday at the age of 60 and has been honoured before all LaLiga matches over the weekend.
Messi scored his side s fourth goal in the 4-0 win over Osasuna and afterwards removed his Barca shirt to reveal a Newell s Old Boys jersey emblazoned with Maradona s famous number 10.
He then pointedly saluted the sky in honour of his compatriot, who spent a season at Newell s the club where Messi began his youth career.
Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho each got a goal in Barca s comfortable victory, along with striker Martin Braithwaite, who opened the scoring in the first half.
They described afterwards how they were not aware of what Messi was planning on a moving day at Camp Nou, where Maradona played from 1982 to 1984.
No words needed.
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona)
We lost Maradona, a global idol, we all miss him, Coutinho said.
We didn t know what Messi had prepared to honour Maradona, added Griezmann. It was a beautiful surprise.
Newell s responded through their English Twitter account, saying: It s all about number 10. The best player in the world and his tribute to #D10S.
Barca s victory moved them into eighth in the table, for a few hours at least, nine points behind leaders Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid in second.
