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Barcelona and Argentina legend Lionel Messi has sent a message to two of Chelsea's young players, with the duo to be named in the Messi +10 group.

Kendry Paez and Andrey Santos have been named alongside Nico Paz, Rodrigo Mora, Rio Ngumoha, Brajan Gruda, Kader Meite, Mike Gosts, Lily Yohannes and Clara Serrajordi. Each player will wear the Adidas F50 Vis10n boot in a partnership between Messi and Adidas.

As part of the partnership Messi appears in a video posted on Instagram. In the video he is seen shuffling a pack of cards.

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He then starts to lay them out on the table, with them showing pictures of the 10 selected players.

The caption to the video reads: “Every card counts. The perfect 10. This is Messi +10.”

A voiceover on the video also says: “The perfect 10. It starts with a shuffle, it relies on a few tricks, a slide of hand, nothing is left to chance.

“Every card is considered, a true maestro knows how to pick them. It’s about pairs that make players fold, the diamond play, a full spread of aces. The perfect 10, that’s how you pick the future of the game.”

Messi has also taken to Instagram himself. Sharing pictures, he has written “Welcome to the family Messi +10” along with a handshake emoji.

Santos has given his response. Sharing the picture of his card he wrote: “Honoured Messi +10, let’s gooo.”

After impressing on an 18-month loan with Strasbourg, Santos returned to Chelsea this summer. He has featured in seven of the 10 games in all competitions this season, missing the last two matches through injury.

18-year-old Paez completed his move to Chelsea from Independiente in the summer. He quickly move on loan to Strasbourg, where he is getting regular game time.

He has so far featured in every Ligue 1 game for the club, scoring his first goal in a 3-2 win over Paris FC last month.