Seven million 'friends' in a day for Messi's own Facebook page

Barcelona - Following the lead of some of his teammates, the Barcelona star has joined the social network and within a few hours received almost 7 million "Like".

Lionel Messi, the soccer superstar of the Argentine national team and Barcelona FC, has just decided to enter the world of Facebook. In just a few hours his Facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/LeoMessi) has accumulated nearly 7 million Likes from fans worldwide. The Argentine player's first online message to his fans was pleasant: "Hola! Welcome to everyone. Thank you very much for the great number of messages that I have received. I am so excited! From now on we will be more closely connected..."Within a few hours almost 30 thousand people liked his message and more than 8000 commented on it. During the past week the player was criticized in Argentina and abroad because of his absence in the field at a friendly match against Costa Rica, held in late March. Newspapers in Costa Rica disapproved of the permanence of “La Pulga” (“The Flea”) on the bench, given the great expectations of his supporters in the country to watch him play. Messi also was accused of being "cruel" for avoiding contact with press of Costa Rica and being distant with the fans who paid up to US$600 for a ticket to the game.