A soccer superstar has come to the shores of the U.S., but all eyes were on his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, who has become famous in her own right.
But as she played the role of adoring spouse when Messi was finally unveiled as an Inter Miami player over the weekend, it has not always been easy for the couple who now share three sons together: Thiago, Matteo and Ciro.
The pair met when they were about the age of five back in Argentina. Messi was the childhood friend of Roccuzzo’s cousin Lucas Scagilia.
It’s said when Messi first laid eyes on her back in the early 90s, he asked: ‘Who is she?’
‘Antonela, my cousin’ was Scagilia’s reply.
According to Scagilia’s father, Messi ‘could not look away from her for a second.’
She visited the neighborhood for two days and Messi immediately knew he wanted to be with her forever.
Whenever she stayed at Scagilia’s house, Messi would find an excuse to visit in the hope that he could catch a glimpse of her.
Often, this would be at weekends. He would write her love letters and told her that when they both grew up she would be his girlfriend.
Roccuzzo would watch Messi and her cousin play for the Newell’s Old Boys club in their younger days.
As his career blossomed, Messi moved to Barcelona when he was 13, but the pair remained in contact.
Five years later, tragedy bought them back together. Roccuzzo was devastated when her best friend, Ursula Notz, died in a car accident in 2005.
Messi was so concerned about his childhood crush that he flew back to Argentina to comfort her.
It was this act of love that drew the pair back together and they became a couple soon after.
But Roccuzzo, then 18, wasn’t ready to move to Barcelona and she stayed in Argentina to get her degree in humanities and social sciences.
She then went onto study her postgraduate studies in dentistry at the National University of Rosario, but she dropped out after six months to be closer to Messi, according to Vanity Fair España.
The couple’s relationship did not become public until 2009.
On the soccer chat show Hat Trick Barca on the Catalan channel TV3 in January 2009, Messi was asked if he was in a relationship.
He replied: ‘Yes, I have a girlfriend. She is in Argentina. The truth is that I am well and I am relaxed.’
Just a few months later the couple went public during a carnival in Sitges after the Barcelona-Espanyol local derby.
Roccuzzo eventually moved to Barcelona to be with her soccer beau and gave up her career aspirations of being a dentist to be with Messi.
The next year Messi proposed to his longtime love and welcomed son Thiago two years later.
In 2015, Mateo was born, and the couple wed two years later in 2017 – 25 years after their first meeting – in their hometown of Rosario at a luxury hotel.
It was described as Argentina’s ‘wedding of the century’ and boasted a guest list of 260 people including soccer players Neymar, Luis Suárez and Gerard Piqué, who arrived in a private jet with his then-partner, Colombian pop star Shakira.
The bride wore a dress by Rosa Clara, a Barcelona-based designer who has dressed actress Eva Longoria and Spain’s Queen Letizia.
A year later the couple had another son, Ciro. Their clan also includes two dogs, a French mastiff named Señor Hulk and a more timid cockapoo named Abu.
And the pair’s love has endured, with Messi gushing in 2019: ‘My wife, Antonela, has lots of great qualities. I really admire how she deals with the day to day, she is always in a good mood and she approaches problems admirably. She is highly intelligent and well rounded in all aspects of life.’
The 35-year-old has become a savvy businesswoman, harnessing her more than 36.1 million-strong Instagram following.
She’s become one of the most famous women in South America with her philanthropic efforts and owner of a children’s fashion label.
Those who know Roccuzzo say that she is ‘humble, modest and enjoys nothing more than to be at home with her boys and her two beloved dogs.’
Thirty years later, the couple shares several homes, including a $13 million mansion just outside Barcelona with views of both the beautiful Catalan hills and the Mediterranean coast.
There are others in Ibiza, Miami, and their home town of Rosario in Argentina. There they have a house called The Fortress with 25 rooms, including a playroom for sons Thiago, Mateo and Ciro.
It is, according to friends, where the Messis plan to retire. And that would take the handsome couple full circle back to when they met in 1993.
While Messi is believed to have been offered a $60 million-a-year contract with Inter Miami, Roccuzzo makes her millions as a social media influencer.
Businesses are falling over themselves to sign her up to plug their products in return for a huge pay cheque.
They include Alo Yoga, Dolce & Gabbana, Guerlain, Dior and Louis Vuitton.
