Private Life

By the standards of modern football, Messi has a relatively private and modest lifestyle. He makes efforts to keep links to his hometown of Rosario. He has an Argentinian girlfriend Antonella Roccuzzo, and they have one child Thiago, born in November 2012.

Messi acts as an ambassador for UNICEF, and also runs his own charitable foundation – supporting access to education and sport for children. Because of his own expensive medical treatment, he has also helped Argentinian hospitals with paying for similar treatment to his own.