He may look different but, my God, Lionel Messi's finesse has certainly not been bleached away.
The Barcelona superstar's peroxide locks were the talk of the town last week but, now that we approach real football time again, his skill is back to the major talking point.
In Barcelona's final pre-season friendly, he came up with an outrageous assist for good buddy Luis Suarez against Sampdoria on Wednesday night.
Messi made a terrific run into the box and controlled the ball first time with his chest and, without looking, hooked it over his head and onto the noggin of his teammate.
Understandably, the assist earned a lot of admiration...
https://twitter.com/amcalled_nuel/status/763449023911104513
https://twitter.com/tfaheel/status/763449217620799488
https://twitter.com/ThugginAssAngel/status/763448967589797890
https://twitter.com/EDMraver1/status/763448925651075072
But the Argentine is never content with just setting up goals and he displayed his characteristic composure when he got his name on the scoresheet just moments later.
His showing off over set pieces soon followed.
Mark our words, there's big things to come from blonde Messi.
