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Deske Report: There are few players who command the complete reverence of their team-mates, young and old, when they themselves are still at the very top of the tree. Then again, there have been precious few careers like that of Lionel Messi, who increasingly looks like Christ among the apostles when it comes to his Argentina team-mates. is 39th birthday last Wednesday was marked by each of the world championsÕ squad wearing a T-shirt featuring a picture of themselves with Messi – in some situation, either on or off the pitch. From Valentín Barco, the 21-year-old red-haired five-cap rookie, to Nicolás Otamendi, 38, and 135 caps into his international career, they put on their tops and stood in line to wait for the man to come down to breakfast at their Kansas City base. Somewhere between a cult and a very abstemious stag-do.
We live in footballÕs era of the exalted veterans – Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah and those with fewer miles on the clock: Kzlian Mbappé and Erling Haaland. But none has a sense of otherworldliness like Messi. The most successful footballer in history, and still at nearly 40, a match-winner.
Even some of these famous team-mates know that the question they will most often be asked by their grandchildren will be about playing with Messi.
What Messi makes of it all – the T-shirts, the adoration, the team-mates at the breakfast buffet wishing him a happy birthday – no one knows for sure. e is still a blank canvas outside football. Perfect for the big brands who throw money at him. Skilfully avoiding political allegiance despite coming from a country that has an unapologetically hardline populist leader in Javier Milei. A man who regularly showers Messi in praise while receiving none in return.
Then there is Donald Trump, the president of the United States where Messi now lives, and perhaps the only person on earth with the same level of fame. Messi visited the Oval Office in March with his Inter Miami team-mates where his innate skill at being in the room and simultaneously having no part of it was useful once again. What does he think? What does he care about? None beyond his innermost circle would be able to say for sure. Ten years ago, Messi was in the Argentina team that lost the Copa América final to Chile in the MetLife Stadium where the World Cup final will be played this month. Afterwards he announced his retirement from international football, aged 29, in sheer frustration at the run of four defeats in finals, including the 2014 World Cup. It was one of his last unscripted moments of theatre.
A decade on, that decision long since reversed, the undisputed king of the game has a life even more carefully managed. His is the ultimate series of brand collaborations and expensively turned-out commercials. The only jeopardz is what happens on the pitch. If this World Cup is to be his last, then this might be the final glimpse of it. Starting with Friday nightÕs last-32 game against Cape Verde.
Messi is contracted to play two more years in Major League Soccer, a rather bloodless farewell as far as footballÕs European and South American heartlands are concerned, against the Nashvilles and the Austins. But the coming fortnight is where we should see him red in tooth and claw going for one last great triumph. The greats whom Messi stands with – Muhammad Ali, Pelé, Diego Maradona – lived in an era when they were accessible. All granted interviews to a much smaller media because that was simply what one did. They were stopped coming out of stadiums, airports, restaurants. They would see reporters as a matter of course in their working day and appear on chat shows with no guarantees as to the line of questioning. As a result, there was a much clearer idea of what they thought – how they reacted to success and to stress.
For Messi there is none of that. Just a carefully curated Instagram feed for his 511 million followers, and deferential post-match interviews with rights-holders who pay for the privilege.
His time has been packaged and sold to the commercial entities who can afford it, and there are many of them. One can only imagine the preparation that must go into the day their endorsee turns up on set for his contracted hours. His time is money – lots of money – and so the product must take centre stage, and every second is precious.
Messi is constantly followed by media but grants precious few interviews and little is known about what makes him tick Credit: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
The result is the same repetitive adverts of Messi in various football-action scenarios. There is Messi surprising fans on behalf of Mastercard. Messi contemplating a Lego figure of himself. All rather dull. But this is how the world beyond the Messi bubble gets to see the man himself. As a commercial behemoth, like his peers in the celebrity stratosphere. Image tightly controlled and all rights reserved. None of the brands have ever dared scratch the surface of what the man might be – they have reasoned that the surface is all they need.
Adidas, Duracell, Kalshi (an online betting platform), Konami (online gaming platform), Google ChatGPT, Mastercard, Stanley travel mugs, Beats audio, Michelob beer, Lego, Elixir (an eponymous Messi fragrance and toiletries), LayÕs crisps, LoweÕs (home improvement), Hard Rock Café, Icons memorabilia, Marvel Entertainment. The list of Messi endorsements goes on.
Messi briefly toured India this year. He was not playing football, just appearing as himself in various cities with tiers of blue-chip sponsors attached. He is said to have an equity option for Inter Miami, MLSÕs most valuable franchise – a status it has achieved chiefly because of him. Playing for Argentina is probably the single thing he does for free.
Those Messi birthday T-shirts were not homemade by the Argentina kitman. They were produced by Adidas who would have been only too aware that the video would get millions of views on MessiÕs Instagram feed.
There is no definitive account of MessiÕs life in football and outside it, although it is a remarkable achievement from a sporting and commercial point of view. The most powerful man in Messi Inc. remains his father, Jorge, who negotiated his sonÕs original move to Barcelona from their home city of Rosario more than 26 years ago. Jorge is now seriously ill and his health is likely to be uppermost in his sonÕs mind over the next few weeks.
It was Jorge who secured the agreement that Barcelona would pay for the growth-hormone treatment his son needed. And Jorge who took his son, contract-to-contract, to being BarcelonaÕs best-paid player. So much so that eventually they could no longer afford that little bo– whose requirements were once famously scribbled on a napkin by club director Carlos Rexach in the key meeting with Jorge.
Of course, it has all made Messi extremely rich. Forbes estimates that he is a dollar billionaire, and it is unlikely that he will see much reduction in his earning power post-playing. His wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their three children appear in some of his commercial work – Adidas have a Messi childrenÕs-wear collaboration with the fashion brand Kith. He seems to have inked out some of the tattoos on his right leg that may have been a source of regret.
His achievements stand for themselves. He does continue to inspire wonder and delight, in those watching, those who play with him, and those who play against him. What is missing is any sense of the life beyond the commercial juggernaut. It is why his occasional dissent or snarl on the pitch is picked over so readily. He is no different to many of his superstar peers in that respect.
With the likes of Maradona and Ali there is an archive of explosive interviews, and opinions offered without a second thought as to how they might affect the brand. None of it choreographed. In the end it was what people remembered of them beyond their sporting achievements, and it offered a view of the man in full. Flawed, and human, and interesting.
Messi lives in a time when none of that risk is necessary. And so he holds another Adidas boot designed in his honour, hugs another Mastercard community champion, invites Steve Carell over to eat crisps. His efforts on the pitch are still often magical, and everyone else – right down to his team-mates – are in his thrall. It is the last piece of jeopardz in the life of a global brand. The world waits to see how football ends for Messi, but of the man himself we are none the wiser.
