It's generally believed that Leo Messi and Antonella Roccuzzo have been an item since they were teenagers, but one of the bride's friends admitted that Mrs Messi was involved in another relationship with someone else for a while.

Messi and Antonella, together for a decade

One of Antonella's friends told Para Ti magazine that while the happy couple have known each other since they were 10 years old, their relationship only started to get serious in 2007.

Roccuzzo, or La Negra as she was known in Rosario, met up with her friends to celebrate 'Friendship Day (El Día del Amigo) on 20 July and that was when they found out that she and Leo were going out together: “We met as we always had done and she took out a Blackberry phone which Leo had given her. She didn't say anything else, but we all guessed that they had started seeing each other”, Antonella's friend explained.

Messi and Antonella had known each other since childhood, after being presented to each other by Luca Scaglia, Antonella's cousin. "Who's that?" asked a nine-year-old Messi, Luca recalled. Leo later wrote the eight-year-old Antonella a letter in which he exclaimed: "One day we will be boyfriend and girlfriend".

Full screen Messi and Antonella Rocuzzo married in Rosario at the weekend. David Fernández (EFE)

Messi leaves Antonella behind to go to Spain

A couple of years later, Leo and his family left Rosario for Spain so that he could continue his career at FC Barcelona and his relationship with Antonella became platonic. Antonella started going out with another boy. But a few years later, Antonella left her boyfriend when she found out that Messi was on his way back to Argentina. According to her friend, she terminated her relationship with her partner and went looking for Leo.

Antonella's ex dealt with his heartbreak in philosophical fashion: “She dumped me, but at least she didn't leave me for any old bloke - she dumped me for Messi...” he told a local paper when recalling the relationship in 2010.