Lionel Messi shows off new toy car

Barcelona striker Lionel Messi has taken to Instagram to poke fun at rumours he forked out more than £25million on a classic Ferrari.

Earlier this week it was claimed Messi once again got one over on Cristiano Ronaldo by outbidding the Real Madrid attacker to secure the purchase of 1957 Ferrari 335S Spider Scaglietti.

But the Argentine’s response on social media on Thursday suggests the reports of the multi-million pound splurge may have been a bit wide of the mark.

Messi, who recently underwent a minor kidney procedure, posted a picture of himself holding one of his son’s toy cars — Lightning McQueen, an animated character in hit Pixar movies Cars and Cars 2 — alongside the caption ‘my new car.’

The Ferrari, which was sold to a round of applause on Saturday, is known for doing a staggering 186mph in 1957.

It finished second in the Mille Miglia — an open-road endurance race — that year before becoming the first car to average 200kph (124mph) on a lap of the Le Mans circuit.

Bidding quickly hit 25 million euros (£19.2m) and the hammer eventually went down at 28 million euros (£21.5m).