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Curacao players begged Lionel Messi to give out 23 shirts - only the goalkeeper got one after conceding hat-trick

Curacao players begged Lionel Messi to give out 23 shirts - only the goalkeeper got one after conceding hat-trick

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick past Curacao goalkeeper Eloy Room but he ended up getting the ultimate souvenir after the 7-0 hammering.

Lionel Messi was begged by Curacao players to give all 23 of them a shirt but only one player was lucky enough to get his jersey.

After scoring his 800th career goal in stunning fashion with a free-kick against Panama, Messi added to his incredible Argentina tally with a hat-trick in a 7-0 thrashing of Curacao at the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudade.

The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner scored all three of his goals in a 17 minute period in the first half to move to 102 goals for his country, with Nicolas Gonzalez, Enzo Fernandez, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Montiel also on target for the world champions.

Ahead of the game, Curacao players made a plea for every one of them to receive a shirt from Messi and said they would fight it out if only one was available.

A match-worn Messi shirt might just be the ultimate souvenir in football and it was goalkeeper Eloy Room who ended up getting it.

The Columbus Crew shotstopper might have been a little down after shipping seven, including three from arguably the greatest to ever do it, but he was still winning regardless.

He swapped shirts with the Paris Saint-Germain superstar and posted a picture of the 57th career hat-trick top, writing that "dreams come true".

Room also posted two pictures of him trading shirts after the game.

Image: Instagram/Eloy Room
Image: Instagram/Eloy Room

Afterwards, the 34-year-old said he would be sleeping with Messi's shirt so that no teammate tried to snatch it away from him and joked his saves to deny the former Barcelona star will look good on YouTube.

"The jersey of Messi, it’s really special," he told TyC Sports.

"It’s unbelievable, a dream come true. Everybody is a fan of Messi. Now I’ve played against him.”

"It was a tough game, he scored some goals against me but I also saved some good shouts from him. After that he told me that, too - that I made some good saves - so that means a lot to me.”

While the former PSV goalkeeper suffered the heaviest defeat of his international career, he will never forget his 43rd cap for Cucurao.

Featured Image Credit: BT Sport and TyC Sports

Topics: Lionel Messi, Argentina