Where’s Hulk? Heartbreaking pet dog decision Lionel Messi & Antonela Roccuzzo had to make when moving to Inter Miami

The Messi clan welcomed a new addition to their family back in 2016 when acquiring a Bordeaux Mastiff puppy. The giant breed – which can grow up to 27 inches tall and weigh 110 pounds – are larger than life characters in their own right, with Messi saying of Hulk when introducing him to the world: “New member of my family. Thanks, love, for this beautiful gift.”

Messi and Roccuzzo have been unable to take Hulk with them to Florida, with Migue Granados revealing on OLGA of the response that he got when asking the Argentine icon where his canine companion is: “I asked him where that bull was and he told me, ‘He's in Barcelona, Hulk is there. He is a little old. So, we had to leave him in the house we have there in Barcelona’.”

Messi is said to have told Granados that Hulk is “on the verge” of having to be put to sleep – with Bordeaux Mastiff’s only having a life expectancy of between five and eight years. The adorable dog is currently being looked after by staff at Messi’s luxurious home in Castelldefels – a Barcelona suburb some 12 miles away from Camp Nou.

Messi and his family – with sons Thiago. Mateo and Ciro alongside him in Miami – would understandably like to visit Hulk more often, having been able to reach Catalunya easily when based in France at Paris Saint-Germain, but they are now over 4,600 miles away on the American east coast.