Has world's most famous footballer, Lionel Messi, joined the great international birding community?

 

On alert - something in a bush has caught the footballer's eye

FRESH from his impressive World Cup exploits for Argentina in Qatar, has footballer Lionel Messi now taken up birding?

A photo of him wielding binoculars has been posted on a website promoting tourism in Saudi Arabia.

However, no further details have been supplied of any of the birds he might have seen.

Although it has some notable desert, oasis and shoreline species, Saudi is not famed as a magnet for birders - except for falconry enthusiasts.

Somewhat underwhelmingly, a further picture on the same website reveals nothing more impressive than a flock of feral pigeons and a single corvid.

But, on an optimistic note, does an opportunity beckon in the UK? 

No one is suggesting that the great footballer should become the new patron of the RSPB - our late Queen is surely irreplaceable.

But, if he agrees, could Messi become an international ambassador for the Bedfordshire-based charity? 

Or the BTO? Or the Wildlife Trusts? 

Contact him without delay at his club: Paris Saint Germain, Parc des Princes, Paris, France.

Feral pigeons in a Saudi street square