Antonela Roccuzzo was only five years old when she met a boy who wanted to be a football player. At the time, she had no idea that she would be cheering for the best player in the world in today’s World Cup final.
She also had no idea that she would become the brains behind Lionel Messi’s billion-dollar brand, which is bigger than all others, including David and Victoria Beckham and even long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo and his fiancee Georgina Rodriguez.
On the way, she didn’t know that she might become the most famous woman in South America. She is a philanthropist, an influencer worth millions of dollars, the owner of a children’s clothing line, and an animal lover.
She is also a dentist, but she gave that up to be with the Argentina striker as he started his journey through Barcelona and now Paris Saint-Germain to become the world’s richest and best footballer.
Antonela Roccuzzo, who is the mother of Messi’s three sons, met him for the first time almost 30 years ago. Yesterday, in Qatar, she was hoping that Messi, who is 35 years old, could help Argentina beat France, who is the defending champion. And it did.
It would be the perfect end to his long and successful career, giving him the last honor he needed. People who know Antonela Roccuzzo, who is 34 years old, say that she is “humble, modest, and loves nothing more than to be at home with her two beloved dogs and her boys.”
There are several homes, of course. They include a £10 million mansion just outside of Barcelona with views of both the beautiful Catalan hills and the Mediterranean coast.
There are others in Ibiza, Miami, and Rosario, Argentina, where they are from. There, they live in a 25-room house called “The Fortress.” Thiago, Mateo, and Ciro each have their own playroom.
Friends say that the Messis plan to live there when they get old. And that would bring the cute couple all the way back to 1993 when they first met and their fairy-tale romance began.
Because their love story is just that, especially when compared to those of most football players, who usually meet their WAGs in flashy nightclubs or on social media.
Antonela’s cousin is Messi’s childhood friend Lucas Scagilia.
When the football player-to-be first saw her in the early 1990s, he asked:
Who is she?’
Antonela, my cousin,
replied Scagilia.
Messi “could not take his eyes off of her for a second,” Scagilia’s father said. She stayed in the area for two days, and Messi knew right away that he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life.
Messi would find a reason to go to Scagilia’s house whenever she stayed there so that he could see her.
Often, this would be at weekends. He would write her love letters and tell her that they would be together when they were older.
They kept in touch, and Antonela saw Messi and her cousin play for the Newell’s Old Boys club when they were younger.
Messi moved to Barcelona when he was 13 because his career was taking off, but he and his father stayed in touch.
Tragic events brought them back together after five years. Antonela was very sad when Ursula Notz, her best friend, died in a car accident. Messi was worried about the girl he had a crush on when he was younger, so he flew back to Argentina to comfort her.
Then they realized that they wanted to date each other. However, because Antonela, who was 18 at the time, didn’t want to be a typical WAG, they were thousands of miles apart.
She went to the National University of Rosario to get a degree in humanities and social sciences. After that, she went on to study dentistry at a higher level. But in the end, love won.
Two years after their relationship became public, Antonela Roccuzzo made the heartbreaking decision to end her career and move to Barcelona.
In January 2009, Messi was asked on the Catalan channel TV3’s football talk show, Hat Trick Barca, if he was in a relationship.
He responded,
Yes, I have a girlfriend. She is in Argentina. The truth is that I am well and I am relaxed.
A few months later, after the big Barcelona-Espanyol game, the couple came out during a carnival in Sitges.
Thiago came into the world in 2012, and Mateo came along in 2015. And in 2017, 25 years after they first met, Antonela became Mrs. Messi. They got married at a fancy hotel in Rosario, where they both grew up.
It was called Argentina’s “wedding of the century” and had 260 guests, including football players Neymar, Luis Suárez, and Gerard Piqué, who came to Rosario in a private jet with his then-girlfriend, Colombian pop star Shakira.
The bride wore a dress by Rosa Clara, a designer from Barcelona who has made clothes for Eva Longoria and Queen Letizia of Spain.
After a year, Ciro, their second son, was born. A French mastiff named Seor Hulk and a cockapoo named Abu are also part of their family.
Messi said about his wife,
She has many good qualities: how she gets by on a daily basis; her personality, she is always in a good mood, and she always faces up to problems in an admirable way.
She is a very intelligent person who is great in all aspects of life.
Antonela Roccuzzo is rich, but she does not spend all of her time shopping for designer clothes.
During the summer, she helped out at the SJD hospital in Barcelona.
The couple also donated the food that was left over from their wedding to a food bank in Rosario. Antonela makes millions as a social media influencer, while her husband plays for Paris Saint-Germain and earns £94 million over three years.
Businesses are falling over themselves to pay her a lot of money to promote their products.
There are well-known brands like Alo, Dolce & Gabbana, Guerlain, Dior, and Louis Vuitton among them.
