Lionel Messi lends luxury £12m private jet with kitchen and two bathrooms to Argentina team-mates for international duty

LIONEL MESSI has generously offered up the use of his £12million private jet to his Argentina team-mates for the international break.

Argentina take on Bolivia and Ecuador in their first two 2022 World Cup qualifying matches on October 8 and October 13.

And, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Messi has offered up his plane to Argentine stars currently playing in Europe to help them stay safe.

Messi was joined by the likes of Paulo Dybala, Juan Foyth, Marcos Acuna, Lucas Ocampos and Nicolas Otamendi on the jet.

The five Argentina stars will then join Messi on the return trip back to Spain in a bid to limit interaction at public airports.

The Barcelona star, 33, first started using the £12m Gulfstream V jet in 2018 – and he has leased it from an Argentine company on a number of occasions in the past few years.

The plane was infamously forced to make an emergency landing in Brussels due to a technical fault earlier this year.

It boasts a number of incredible features, including its very own kitchen.

There are two bathrooms and enough seats for 16 people.

The chairs can even be folded up and turned into eight beds so the players can get some much-needed shut-eye on the long flight to South America.

Messi even has the names of his family adorned on the jet, with wife Antonella, plus children Thiago, Ciro and Mateo all having their names etched on the steps.

The plane also boasts Messi's iconic No10 on the tail.

Meanwhile, Messi could miss this month's El Clasico thanks to his participation in international duty.

The game against Real Madrid is currently set to take place just 12 days after the Bolivia clash – on October 25 – two days within the 14-day quarantine timeframe.

Messi would likely miss the game with Getafe a week earlier, on October 18, too.

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