Lionel Messi marries childhood sweetheart, Antonella Roccuzzo

Argentine football star Lionel Messi has married his childhood sweetheart, Antonella Roccuzzo, in his hometown of Rosario, in what has been called the "wedding of the century".

Messi, 30, and Roccuzzo, 29, got married in a civil ceremony at a luxury hotel.

Football stars and celebrities were among the 260 guests, with hundreds of police deployed for the event. Messi, the Argentina and Barcelona forward, met Roccuzzo as a child before he moved to Spain aged just 13.

Among the guests at Friday's wedding were Messi's Barcelona teammates Luis Suárez, Neymar, Gerard Piqué and his wife, Colombia's pop star Shakira. A number of guests flew into Rosario on private jets.

Argentina's Clarín newspaper has variously called the wedding "the wedding of the year" and "the wedding of the century".