Lionel Messi thought his neighbors were too loud so he reportedly bought their houses

Neighbors can be the worst.

Lionel Messi thought his were the worst, according to a report by Diario Gol, so he went all Mark Zuckerberg and bought them out. Only rather than let his neighbors stay in the houses he now controlled, Messi made them go away.

[ FC Yahoo: Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Blog ]

Actually, it’s a tad more complicated than that – if we’re even understanding the story right from the shoddy translation. Messi and his family currently live in the Pedralbes neighborhood of Barcelona, tucked up against the hills. But he also owns a house in the Castelldefels suburb, which he’s fixing up. His brother Rodrigo is apparently overseeing the renovations for him.

The lot of the new house will apparently take up almost an entire block in one of the swanky town’s best parts. Now that the houses next door have been bought up for about a million euros, that is.

[ Newsletter: Get 5 great stories from Yahoo Sports blogs in your inbox every day! ]

Apparently, the houses were offered to Messi when the owners got hit hard by the recession, but he declined. So instead, the owners rented out their houses. But the new tenants are, per the Diario Gol story “nosy,” “rude” and “play loud music.”

Apparently, the Messis first set about building a wall to shield them from the two other houses. But the neighbors complained that zoning issues prohibited such a structure and threatened a lawsuit.

And so Messi bought the houses after all, to ensure peace and quiet once his family moves into their refurbished “estate.”

Messi now apparently has his eye on a third house on the block, which would increase his footprint to about two acres. They’ll knock down the wall and fix up the other houses – presumably as guest residences.

We’re not entirely sure what to make of this story. So here’s a video of Messi’s insanely cute one-year-old son Mateo – who seems to already understand more English than his dad.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.