The house of Lionel Messi’s brother was one of three sprayed with bullets in a weekend shooting, Argentine police said on Monday.
A police source told Agence France-Presse that several shots were fired on Saturday night in the northern city of Rosario, although no one was hurt.
One of the houses hit belongs to Barcelona and Argentina star Messi’s 28-year-old brother Matias.
“At around 10.30pm on Saturday night three houses were fired on … including that of Matias Messi. There were no victims,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Media reports said two people pulled up outside on motorbikes and fired on the houses before riding off.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, speaking in Donetsk ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League quarterfinal second leg match with Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk, reported that Mattias was not there when the shooting took place.
“Manel [Estiarte, in charge of non-football matters for the club] spoke to the father of Leo Messi, Jorge.
“He said that Matias was neither in the house nor the neighbourhood and that all the family are fine. That is the information which the father provided us with.”
Media in Rosario also noted that Matias Messi had been briefly detained in 2008 on suspicion of being in possession of a firearm, which the family lawyer denied.
Lionel and Matias have two other brothers — Marisol and Rodrigo.
Lionel (23), world player of the year, spent his early childhood in Rosario but moved to Barcelona in 2000 after the Catalan club took him into their youth structure, agreeing to pay for treatment for a growth hormone deficiency. — AFP