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Dirty TackleSpace-suited Lionel Messi to captain Galaxy 11 in match against aliens
The Mysterious Circles in Rio de Janeiro, New York City and on the pitches at London's Hackney Marshes followed by the Mysterious Guys wearing black robes in attendance at Stamford Bridge, Juventus Stadium and the Allianz Arena have drawn international attention over the last few weeks. Bayern Munich and New York Cosmos legend Franz Beckenbauer eventually explained these bizarre and elaborate happenings by calmly revealing that the fate of the world would depend on athletic prowess and not military might as aliens have challenge mankind to a football match with the winner taking earth.
At this point, it should be pointed out that this is a part of an ambitious Samsung campaign and Beckenbauer has not completely lost his mind. Nonetheless, Beckenbauer was tasked with assembling "a team of the world's finest" and, as he promised in the video above, we can reveal that the captain and first member of the Galaxy 11 is four-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi.
Messi was approached for this mission in dramatic fashion. He was minding his own business, dribbling a ball through the streets of Barcelona, when a fleet of black vehicles surrounded him. He then evaded his pursuers with a series of hardcore parkour moves that included running on top of a car and navigating his way through a Chinese restaurant, all while keeping the ball at his feet just like a well trained stunt man. Finally, he lost his ball and he was surrounded once again, with Beckenbauer finally able to offer him the captain's armband before Messi looked up to the sky to see a massive UFO.
"Football will save the planet," the opening chapter of this ongoing saga concluded. And over the coming weeks, the other 10 players will be revealed. In December, the story will advance to their training for the all-important match. Until then, here's Leo in his Galaxy 11 kit/spacesuit...
But wait! This image is even better...
Clearly Messi is taking this task very seriously. (And hopefully his latest injury doesn't mean we're all doomed.)
For years, Nike has been the king of elaborate football campaigns, but as you can see just in these videos and images, Samsung appears to be out to set a new benchmark with this serialized tale of intergalactic competition. Who will round out the rest of Earth's only hope? Is Cristiano Ronaldo already jealous that he's not captain? What if Franz Beckenbauer has actually been an alien himself all this time? Stay tuned!
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is the editor of Dirty Tackle on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow on Twitter!
