Most of what is known about Cheuko is what has been gleaned from his own social media profile. His salary is more reliably reported to be (a still very tidy) $250,000. An excellent calling card for a celebrity security guard except military types quickly exposed that for being utterly fictitious.Įqually outlandish is the claim made by some excitable media outlets that he is being paid $3m a year to have Messi’s back. Initially, it was suggested, some say by Inter Miami as a scare tactic, that Cheuko was a former Navy Seal who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. His own profile has been enhanced by the insatiable appetite for Messi-related stories and there is a certain mystique surrounding his ubiquitous shadow. Photograph: Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Lionel Messi of Inter Miami CF and his ever-present bodyguard Yassine Cheuko during the second half of the Major League Soccer game against the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. There he is strutting off the team bus alongside Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba et al, blending in perfectly apart from his eyes busily scanning all before him.Įverywhere Messi stops to sign autographs, Cheuko is on his shoulder, panning the crowd, only an earpiece away from being a member of the secret service detail working the presidential beat. Here he is clearing a path as the footballer is leaving a restaurant with his family and struggling to get to his car. This was merely the latest Cheuko clip to go viral over the last couple of months, as people have taken more and more notice of the burly, unsmiling character always lurking in the background of so much Messi footage. The face of a man wondering exactly what he has got himself into here. And, as he so often does in America, Messi looked on, bemused. Just as he got close enough to touch him, the ever-vigilant Cheuko, having come in from the sideline at top speed, intercepted the besotted lad and put him in a chokehold until stadium security came to carry him off. In the 73rd minute of Inter Miami’s recent visit to Los Angeles FC, Cheuko demonstrated exactly why MLS afforded him the type of pitchside access usually reserved for players, coaching staff, and match officials.Ī demented young fella, wearing an old Barcelona number 10 with Messi on the back, suddenly sprinted out from behind one goal and ran towards his hero in the middle of the park.
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