A soccer-playing robot will compete in an international tournament later this year – and experts say ‘she’ is better than Lionel Messi.

A 4ft 8in humanoid named Artemis can walk and jump and is part of the unique trio robots around the world with the ability to run.

Researchers from the University named after California Los Angeles (UCLA) is calling Artemis an anagram for “a robot that beats Messi in soccer.”

Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, said: “We are very excited to bring Artemis to field trials here at UCLA, and we see this as an opportunity to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics to a much wider audience. ‘

The human-sized robot will show off its soccer skills as a participant in France’s RoboCup23 in July.

During the tests, experts recorded Artemis walking at a record speed of 2.1 m/s, and since then they have been walking around the university campus in preparation.

RoboCup23 will bring together 2,500 participants representing 45 countries to take part in a series of football competitions.

Robots of all sizes can compete in different leagues, with a “small” league for bots five inches tall, and a humanoid league for tall ones like children, teenagers, and adults.

The inventor of the cup, Hiroaki Kitano, proposed almost 30 years ago that by 2050, robots will be able to play on the field with humans.

Artemis’ football skills will be tested more vigorously in the coming weeks in addition to his ability to get up off the ground and carry objects.

Dr. Hong claims the 85Ibs robot is the “first of its kind” to use technology to make it behave as if it has “elastic” biological muscles, rather than rigid parts like other robots.

During the tests, experts recorded how Artemis walked at a record speed of 2.1 m/s, and since then they have been playing with her around the university campus.

In the coming weeks, Artemis’ soccer skills will be tested more intensively in addition to his ability to get up off the ground and carry objects

Artemis follows a number of other robots developed by the University of California, Los Angeles, including the firefighting Saffir made in 2014 and Thor, designed for disaster relief. Five-foot-tall Thor triumphed at the 2015 RoboCup, also competing against more than 400 teams

Robots of all sizes can take part in various RoboCup leagues (pictured in 2015)

“It’s the key to his excellent balance when walking over rough terrain and his ability to run — to keep both feet off the ground as he moves,” he added.

Artemis follows a number of other robots developed by the University of California, Los Angeles, including the firefighting Saffir made in 2014 and Thor, designed for disaster relief.

Five feet tall Thor won the RoboCup in 2015 also compete against more than 400 teams.

The current robot of the researchers was part was funded by 232 donors who contributed $118,000 to the crowdfunding campaign, and other support also came from a Naval Research grant.