Lionel Messi gave away one of his greatest awards to teammate, it's in his house

Lionel Messi has so many awards in his collection that he can afford to give them away.

The Inter Miami star won the Ballon d'Or for the eighth time in October after finally getting his hands on the World Cup trophy with Argentina.

Messi is arguably the best to ever do it and has won an incredible 44 trophies in his decorated career.

But he also has a slew of individual awards, including 16 Argentine Footballer of the Year awards and six European Golden Shoes.

The majority of his prizes were won during his game-changing 17-year spell at Barcelona and Messi revealed that "everything" he owns is in Barcelona's museum.

That includes his Ballon d'Ors and Golden Boots - although one trophy ended up elsewhere in a bizarre set of circumstances.

His La Liga 2020/21 Best Player award was gifted to compatriot Leandro Paredes, who Messi has played with for both Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina.

Image: Getty

Paredes has never played in La Liga but when Messi joined him in Paris, he cheekily asked for the memento and the Barcelona legend was more than happy to.

Paredes recalled: "He [Messi] arrived in Paris, I asked him if he would give it to me and he gave it to me.”

The 29-year-old showed journalists around his house in Turin while on loan at Juventus and went through his memorabilia.

But while the majority of stuff was from his own career, including trophies, shirts, balls, he couldn't help but pick out Messi's award.

Image: Getty

Messi scored 35 goals in 30 La Liga games in his final season at Barca.

There is a recurring trend of elite players giving their most prized possessions away.

Cristiano Ronaldo auctioned off his 2013 Ballon d'Or for the Make-A-Wish charity, with Idan Ofer, Israel's richest person, providing the winning bid after pledging €600,000.