THE ‘world’s strongest toddler’ who stunned fans with his incredible muscles and sheer strength is now a football wonder kid.
Now eight years old, little Arat Hosseini went viral as a toddler when his dad began sharing his son’s intense home workouts.
The youngster, from Iran, can be seen scaling 10ft walls and doing backflips all while showing off his incredible sick pack.
His dad, Mohamad, quickly realised that his son was an extremely talented footballer and the tot was signed to Liverpool’s football academy in 2019 in their under-9’s squad.
His Instagram shows the stacked footie star doing keepy uppies on a treadmill as part of his training sessions.
The tiny hulk has since shot to stardom and has over 5million followers with fans dubbing him ‘Mini Messi’.
Arat’s followers include so big names such as Mohamed Salah, David Beckham, Lewis Hamilton and Will Smith.
In a 2021 interview with Sky Sports, the footie sensation said his dream was ‘to be the best football player in the world.
In January this year, Arat’s dad announced that the youngster had parted ways with Liverpool.
Talking about his son’s future, Mohammed said: “I have not decided on his future yet.”
The budding footie star first appeared on Instagram at the tender age of three when his dad began sharing videos of his extreme workouts.
He revealed that even as a baby, Arat was super strong and was able to do pulls ups by the time he was nine months old.
Speaking in 2017, Mohamad said: “One day when I returned home from work and put my finger in Arat’s hand, he got up slowly and, gripping my finger very tightly, pulled his legs off the ground.
“At that time I noticed the strength and power Arat had and were very surprised. Arat’s favourite trick is performing a backwards somersault.”
His dad soon spotted Arat’s passion for football and they set about training just 20 minutes every day to hone his skills.
Footage shows him training on a treadmill while keeping the ball at his feet in his front room.
While other clips show the youngster doing bicycle kicks and one-handed push-ups.
His family was so invested in their son’s future that they moved the family from Iran to Liverpool when he was first connected with the club in 2019.
Arat attracted the attention of some big names during his rise to fame including Messi himself who said the youngster was ‘impressive’ and a ‘class’ act.
But in January this year, Arat’s father posted a statement saying that the youngster had parted ways with the Premier League football club.
The post read: “Goodbye Arat from Liverpool Academy forever.
“When Arat and the Liverpool academy can not be useful to each other, the best decision is to go.”
Explaining the decision to leave, he wrote: “Just decided to break up because Arat’s style of play does not fit with this [Liverpool’s]
His next move is currently unknown, but fans believe the Mini Messi could be eyeing up a move to Barcelona after he was seen wearing the team’s shirt during a training session.
It comes as Richard Sandrak, who was once dubbed ‘Little Hercules’, revealed he had given up bodybuilding to become a stuntman.
As a youngster, Richard was branded as the world’s strongest boy after pictures of his toned physique went viral.
But two decades later and Sandrak is completely unrecognizable from his childhood celebrity image.
And he told Inside Edition in 2015 that he’s now turned his back on lifting weights completely.
Instead, Sandrak had, at the time, moved on to performing stunts at Universal Studios in California.
Videos show him getting set on fire and falling 50 feet to the ground as part of his job.
Speaking in 2015, he said he no longer lifts weights, calling it “boring.”
But he added: “I’m very proud of my past. It’s not something I don’t want people to know, it’s just that I’m not going to be stuck living in it.”
