South American journalists working in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion have revealed how Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona helped them out of trouble.
According to Argentine TV channel Telefe, the reporters were stopped at a checkpoint and taken to a police station for questioning by the authorities.
And it was then when a picture of Messi — and a tattoo of Diego Maradona — allowed them the journalists to prove that they were not acting as spies.
Chilean reporter Daniel Matamala said on his Instagram story: "Today, at one of the road checkpoints, the police seized our documents, cameras, telephones, and escorted us to the police station. The first interrogations were tense: it is a country at war and spies or saboteurs are suspected.
"Until one of the policemen saw the passports of my Argentine colleagues and among a lot of words in Ukrainian, he said two that we understood 'Messi' and 'Maradona'. That's where everything changed. Our great cameraman Juan Zamudio showed that he has a tattoo of Diego Maradona in the calf."
Argentine journalist Guillermo Panizza then showed the policemen a photo of himself alongside Messi, taken 14 year ago.
Panizza added: "It's so big that a picture of Messi helped us get out of a police station in Ukraine. Thank you for this photo and for being Argentine."
