There is a little-known aspect in the life of Lionel Messi, the Argentine champion who at 39 years old will take the field against Spain in a few hours to try to win his second World Cup and it is his profound Catholic faith.
Let’s go back to four years ago. Immediately after the Argentina-France final, in the first hot interviews, he said: “I knew God would give it to me. I felt this was the moment.” A year later, during a radio interview, he stated that he has a continuous dialogue with God: “Yes, I always talk to him. I thank him, I ask him for the good of my family and the people I love.”, also adding that he prays habitually and that gratitude is an important part of his spiritual life.
More recently, at the America Business Forum in Miami, when asked whether champions are born or made, he didn’t hesitate: «I have always said that God gave me a gift, he chose me. Since I was little I was like this, I was talented, but along the way I made many sacrifices and efforts to strengthen the gift I had received. But I am grateful to God because He gave me the main thing.”
In 2013 he met his compatriot Pope Francis with great joyalso a great football fan. In October 2021, French Prime Minister Jean Castex visited the Pope, bringing him a special gift from La Pulce: the number 30 shirt of Paris Saint-Germain, the team where he was playing at the time, autographed by Messi with a personalized dedication. Pope Francis returned the favor the following year by sending Messi, through the auxiliary bishop of Lyon, an official Athletica Vaticana (Vatican sports club) shirt signed by himself. And yet, interviewed by Tg1 in 2023 to the classic question of who he preferred between the two Argentine super champions, Maradona or Messi, the Pontiff surprised everyone by stating “I would put a third, Pelé. Maradona as a player was great, but as a man he failed. Messi is very correct, he is a gentleman. But for me the great gentleman is Pelé, a man with a heart and great humanity”.
Returning to Messi, the champion also bears the signs of his faith on his body: on his right arm he has tattooed the face of Jesus Christ with the crown of thorns on his shoulder and, on his elbow, a design inspired by the stained glass windows of the Sagrada Família, the famous basilica in Barcelona. We’ll see tonight if and how many times he will raise it towards the sky.
