A BRAZILIAN footballer who once likened himself to Lionel Messi smashed up a £500,000 McLaren sports car as he enjoyed his holidays.
Paulo Henrique Santos – better known as Paulinho – hit a tree after losing control of his supercar on a wet road.
The 27-year-old, who plays for Chinese Super League club Shanghai Port as a winger, escaped serious injury.
But the front of his McLaren 600LT is now off the road after the front of the vehicle was smashed in and it was left a near write-off.
Santos, who compared his style of play to Messi’s eight years ago when he signed for Spanish side Cordoba, was identified after being filmed by a passer-by standing at his damaged pride-and-joy in the rain in his native Ceilandia in Brazil – where the crash occurred while he was on holiday.
He told Brazilian media in an interview he gave alongside his glamorous wife Daiany Naiara he was already planning on buying a replacement for the car he smashed up, which has a top speed of 204mph and can reach 100mph in just 9.7 seconds.
The 27-year-old, whose full name is Paulo Henrique Soares dos Santos but is better known in Brazil by his nickname Paulinho, said: “We’re already looking at another McLaren. We have photos and videos of one we like.”
His wife added: “He’s really liked that car and dreams about buying another.
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“The one he crashed can be repaired but they would have to import the parts and it would cost a lot of money to fix.
“It would also take time and energy and Paulinho needs to concentrate on his football and on being a good professional.”
As well as the radiator and bonnet, fans in the car were also damaged.
Local reports say it was worth around £467,000, and the cost of repairing the McLaren has been put at around £145,000 – the equivalent of the price of 20 family cars in Brazil.
The footballer, who joined Shanghai Port in July last year after a loan spell at Portuguese top-flight side Porto, denied claims by witnesses he was speeding when he went off the road, and said the wet road with the rain had been the problem as he tried to accelerate past a slower vehicle.
He insisted: “People have talked about me doing 110 miles per hour but if that was true, I wouldn’t be here to tell the story.
“The most important thing is I am okay.”
Daiany added: “The road was wet and Paulinho wasn’t going fast as some people have claimed. It was more because of the rain that the car skidded and went up the curb onto the grass.”
Paulinho made headlines in Spain by likening himself to Barcelona legend Messi when he signed for Cordoba in 2013.
Spanish press reported at the time he had claimed during his official presentation that his style was ‘a bit similar to Messi’s, although not exactly the same because of his pace’.
He said at the time: “I hope to give the fans a lot of happiness and score a lot of goals to get us in the first division.”
He lasted only a few months with the Andalusian side and spent the next seven without a club before joining Cadiz.
His more famous namesake – the former Spurs midfielder Paulinho who also played in the Chinese Super League and enjoyed time at Barcelona – is currently back in Brazil with Corinthians.
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