Junior Firpo secured a dream move to Barcelona this summer.

After impressing last season for both Real Betis and Spain U21, the 22-year-old was snapped up by the Blaugrana and for a seemingly paltry fee of £27 million given the current market.

While the youngster will face plenty of competition with Jordi Alba this season, it looks as though Barcelona have made an incredibly shrewd signing for the future.

However, there is something rather awkward about Firpo's decision to come to Camp Nou and it revolves around none other than the club's star player Lionel Messi.

You'd imagine that almost every footballer in the world dreams of playing with the Argentine, but you wouldn't think so from a series of tweets that Firpo sent in his youth.

Firpo's tweets about Messi

It's emerged in the Spanish press this summer that Barcelona's new signing posted a number of eye-watering tweets about Messi when he was 15 years old.

Sure, many of us have posted some embarrassing things on social media, particularly when we were younger, but few of us have joked about breaking people's legs... obviously.

The same can't be said for Firpo, though, who used the medium of Mundo Deportivo to apologise for the tweets and explain that he never expected them to gain any relevance.

Firpo makes his apology

It was established by AS - and translated by The Sun - that the Spaniard had bragged that he could “probably break both of Messi’s legs” using just "one kick."

The Spanish publication also reiterated that Firpo had branded Messi a "son of a b****."

There are also unconfirmed reports that Firpo penned: “I do not give a cr** that sh**** rat Messi got injured. I hope he dies and stops scoring goals hahaha.”

Certainly some extreme comments and while the 22-year-old has since deleted them, he should probably be thankful that Messi has never owned a Twitter account.

Seeking to be forgiven for the whole situation, Firpo explained to MD: “I would say ugly things about Messi on Twitter to tease him. That is it, just some childish things.

“These are things from when you are 15 years old, when nobody knows you and when you cannot think that they will have repercussions years later."

Further to that, it seems as though Firpo has transitioned from hoping that Messi stops scoring to heralding him as the best player in world football. 

Firpo explained: "I always say the same thing when people talk about the Ballon d'Or: they had to give it to Messi off the bat and then make another award for the rest of the mortals and see who deserves it the most."

Like the man himself says: they were silly tweets posted when he was young, and no doubt Messi will quickly forgive him if they can strike up a similar partnership to the one he has with Alba.

Do you think Firpo should be punished for his Messi tweets? Have your say in the comments section below.