Lionel Messi concerned over Argentina flood victims
Barcelona ace forward Lionel Messi has expressed his concerns for the victims who have been affected by the devastating flood that has struck his homeland Argentina recently.
The 28-year-old has asked people to come forward and show their support in aid for the people who have been suffered damage from the severe floods that have reported to have evacuated 11,000 people.
The province of Buenos Aires has experienced huge storms over the past few days with massive rainfall (35 centimetres) in certain areas that have caused floods eventually killing three people and inflicting further damage which forced people to clear out from those areas.
And Messi has admitted that he is worried about how things are back at his country as the four-time Ballon d’Or winner took his thoughts to social media where he revealed he is concerned about the disaster.
"I'm really concerned about my compatriots, in Argentina, after seeing the images of the floods," posted Messi. "I'd like to encourage everyone to help those suffering through this tough time."
Muy preocupado con las imágenes que veo de las inundaciones en nuestro país. Desde acá me gustaría que nos contagiemos...
Posted by Leo Messi on Thursday, August 13, 2015
Messi donated 4.5m Pesos to Unicef recently
Just a few days back, Messi had made a huge donation to Unicef, for whom he is a goodwill ambassador.
The Rosario-born star made a donation of 4.5m Pesos which is close to £315,000 to the children's charity, with the news confirmed via a video link on live television.
The Argentine came under heavy criticism recently after his country failed to win the Copa America in Chile. Coach Gerardo Martino’s men lost against hosts Chile in the final match of the tournament and Messi was largely blamed by his nation for failing to replicate his Barcelona form in Albiceleste colours.
This wasn’t the first time that Messi was made the scapegoat for Argentina’s recent failures. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil was another bitter outing for the Catalan star as Argentina suffered an agonising 1-0 extra-time defeat in the final against Germany and finished up as runners-up in the tournament. The result wasn’t received well by fans and pundits alike as several people picked apart the squad and of course Messi was the centre of all the negativity.
The story in Barcelona has been different altogether as Luis Enrique’s men swooped a treble in the 2014/15 season and are on track on win a historic sextuple. Messi and co. maintained their winning form this week as Barcelona edged out Sevilla 5-4 in extra time to clinch the UEFA Supercup trophy in Greece.
Barcelona begin their new La Liga season on August 23 as they travel to the Basque country to take on Athletic in their opening game.