Messi and Nadal’s homes on criminal gang’s hitlist

THE criminal gang accused of a £2.5 million break-in at Paris Saint-Germain star’s Marco Verratti’s holiday home had set their sights on the mansions of Lionel Messi and Rafa Nadal, it emerged today.

Police confirmed last week they had arrested seven suspects following the raid at the villa in Ibiza belonging to former Brazilian international Ronaldo which Verratti had rented for his summer break.

Detectives went public with the arrests after recovering most of the stolen property when they held two men as they disembarked from a car ferry in the Costa Blanca port of Denia which had come from Ibiza.

They also confirmed they had found evidence linking the gang to another 15 burglaries at luxury villas in Alicante, Malaga and Murcia.

Today a local paper in Ibiza published extracts of hand-written notes seized at one of the suspect’s homes which includes the names of Messi and Nadal as well as those of Real Madrid legends Guti and Fernando Hierro and former Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar. – thesun.co.uk