Real Madrid Announce Signing of Barcelona's Lionel Messi as Online Hackers Strike Again

Real Madrid have announced the signing of Barcelona forward and five-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi on their official social media accounts - after becoming the latest high-profile victims of hackers 'OurMine'.

A tweet and Facebook post welcoming Barcelona star Messi to the Spanish and European champions was sent out overnight on Friday, before the posts began to be removed around 8am Madrid local time on Saturday. Barcelona themselves had fallen victim to hackers earlier this week, with a post claiming they'd signed Angel Di Maria appearing online.

In fairness to the hackers, posting a video of Messi scoring a late winner against Real Madrid from last season while announcing his signing is pretty creative.

The hackers even went on to claim they'd "sold Karim Benzema" in among a series of self-promotional posts, while they also labelled internet security as "sh*t" after gaining access to the accounts.

One of the tweets read: "OurMine Team here, Internet security is s*** and we proved that. Ourmine.org for more security *Not Only FC Barcelona*"

That was followed by: "Let's make #RealMadridHack Trending."

This isn't the first time Real Madrid have tried to sign Lionel Messi, but this attempt is for sure the most creative method the club have ever taken...