Lionel Messi has grown accustomed to opponents scrambling for his shirt at full-time. 

Last month, Elche goalkeeper Edgar Badia managed to get his hands on Messi's jersey and looked genuinely touched when the Argentine asked for his in return. 

You'll never see the six-time Ballon d'Or winner approach players himself asking to swap shirts. 

We imagine, when you're the greatest footballer of all time, the mystique of asking for James Milner's sweaty shirt after you've finished nutmegging him isn't all that exciting. 

It's curious then, that Messi has such an extensive shirt collection in his £5.5 million house. He famously claimed that he typically didn't care about swapping shirts and had only ever asked one man: Zinedine Zidane. 

"I don't ask for shirts, I usually swap them, but I asked Zidane once," he told TyC Sports, as quoted by The Mirror. 

"If there is an Argentine I swap it with him, but, unless someone asks me, I'm not asking anyone."

Generally, the forward is very gracious when his opponents want his shirt as a memento, though he did once snub a teenage Alphonso Davies. 

After Bayern Munich had thumped Barcelona 8-2 in the Champions League, Davies admitted Messi was too "upset" and turned him down. 

So the young left-back is one omission from Messi's collection, but at least he's in good company. Cristiano Ronaldo doesn't feature, either. 

Who does? As he alluded to, Messi prioritises getting the shirts of his Argentina teammates and that includes Angel Di Maria, Diego Milito, and Ezequiel Lavezzi. You'll notice even West Ham's Manuel Lanzini features prominently on the top left-hand side. 

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Elsewhere, there are the shirts of his oldest friends, Cesc Fabregas and Sergio Aguero, legends like Philipp Lahm and Francesco Totti, Gianluigi Buffon and Yaya Toure. 

One of his most treasured shirts belonged to Pablo Aimar, the player he most looked up to growing up in Rosario. 

Rival players aren't off limits either. Real Madrid icons Raul and Iker Casillas can be seen quite clearly.

And Espanyol youngster Adria Pedrosa was slated by his own fans for asking for Messi's shirt after the Catalan derby. 


Messi's collection is so vast it takes up an entire room of his multi-million euro pad in Barcelona - which is quite remarkable for someone who "doesn't swap shirts".