Village club chairman suspended after Lionel Messi transfer bid

The chairman of a French village football team has been suspended after making an audacious attempt to sign Lionel Messi.

FC Borne’s Cédric Enjolras submitted the formal request to sign Barcelona’s World Player of the Year last month after a boozy night out with friends.

However, the official request was intercepted by the French Football Federation who decided against sending it to Barcelona – instead suspending Cédric Enjolras for six months with three suspended.

Yves Begon, chairman of the FFF committee, acknowledged the request was a joke but that they “could not accept such behaviour”.

The French village, which has a population of just 400 people, play in the second division of the Haute-Loire district in the south of central France – a world away from where La Liga’s chief tormentor plies his exquisite trade.

Messi has already scored more than 40 goals for the Spanish side this season in the domestic game and in Europe and is widely regarded as one of the game’s greatest ever talents.

On Tuesday night he scored twice for Barcelona as the Catalan giants tore Arsenal apart, winning 3-1 in the second-leg of a Champions League tie.

His first goal, which saw him flick the ball over the keeper and then into the back of the net was described by Rio Ferdinand as a “Fifa 11 goal”.

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Picture credit: Pretty Friendship on Flickr