Andre Penner/Associated Press

Lionel Messi indirectly helped save the life of an Argentinian man who was kidnapped in Nigeria.

The 28-year-old by the name of Santiago Lopez Menendez says he was captured in the north-west of the country by men with automatic weapons who believed that he was American.

Attempts to explain he was not fell on the deaf ears of his captors, who spoke almost no English, until he started repeating the name "Messi."

At that point, after three days without food and water, and having been beaten, his treatment improved.

His employers then paid the ransom, and he has now been released and taken to the Argentina Embassy in the country.

According to a report by Mariana Iglesias in Clarin (h/t Toby Keel of Eurosport), Menendez said, via his brother: "Thank you Messi, mentioning your name saved my life."

[Clarin, h/t Eurosport]