Lionel Messi reportedly received a nice little earner on the side to supplement his dole money Barcelona wages after he successfully laid a foundation stone for a stadium in Gabon.
French media outlet 'France Football' have accused Messi of receiving a tidy sum for his recent African jaunt - in the region of €3.5 million.
Messi was a guest of the Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba, typically known just as plain old Ali Bongo.
Mr. Bongo is no one's idea of a enlightened moderniser. He arrived in the job in 2009, succeeding his recently deceased father.
After many years hard graft (pun intended) the Bongo family have acquired a reputation as the kleptocratic dynasty which all other kleptocatic dynasties aspire to becoming.
Gabon is an oil rich nation, but the policies of the Bongo family have miraculously managed to ensure that whole swathes of the population continue to live in poverty.
During Omar Bongo's 41 year long reign in power, the Bongo family became magnificently wealthy and Omar himself became one of the wealthiest head of state in the world. He used his power and influence as he saw fit.
According to a report in the New York Times, Italian fashion designer Francesco Smalto managed to secure tailoring business worth $600,000 a year by providing the late President with a steady stream of prostitutes.
His son has been accused of continuing his father's practice of plundering the nation's finances in the name of his personal jollies and getting re-elected thanks to electoral fraud.
Messi naturally offered no commentary on Bongo's reign while in the country.
He merely laid the foundation for the stone for the proposed new stadium, shook his generous host's hand and departed.
Al Bongo said of Messi:
When I was in Barcelona a few years ago, I met Messi who had told me that he would come to visit me in Libreville.
It's a promise he made me. He is a man of honour who just kept his word.
Opposition politicians have implored Messi to do some research into the Bongo reign.
