Lionel Messi has almost officially achieved the status of a king after winning the FIFA World Cup with Argentina. It took him nearly two decades of his professional career to do so, but Messi sprinkled his magic in Qatar to help La Albieceleste to their third World Cup crown.
Since winning the World Cup, Messi has become an unquestioned hero in Argentina. For many, he has achieved the GOAT (greatest of all time) status by winning the one trophy that evaded him all his career. Messi is being treated as royalty wherever he goes in Argentina, with fans trying to mob him and hail him like some sort of footballing god.
This has gotten to the point where football clubs that he never played for are also treating him as a king. While Messi might have had a bad experience in his few years at PSG, he gets treated like a GOAT almost everywhere else he goes. That is definitely a thing for when he travelled to play in River Plate’s stadium ‘Estadio Mas Monumental’ in Argentina’s recent 1-0 win over Paraguay.
Messi never played for River Plate. In fact, he is well known for playing for Newell’s Old Boys as his first club. However, it appears that the Argentine giants still treat him like they would to their club legend. They decided to treat him to something rather amazing for a player who never played for them.
Ahead of the Argentina-Paraguay clash, Messi was gifted his own personalized VIP box by the River Plate manager. This is something that they can use FOREVER, whenever they want to come over to the Monumental to watch a match. Normally in football, clubs build personalized VIP boxes for the entourage or family members of their players.
However, most of these boxes need to be shared by multiple families or friends of players. In this case, Messi’s dear ones don’t have to share it with anybody. This brilliant press box is a room that celebrates all the greatest moments of Messi’s national career.
The door that takes you into the room has a board ‘Familia Messi’ (Messi’s family) imprinted just at the side of it with three stars over it – which is a homage to the three World Cup titles won by the Argentine national team.
Upon entering the room, guests are greeted by a huge white wall on the left with the ‘10’ initials imprinted on it – a tribute to Leo’s iconic no.10 shirt number.
There is a kitchen and snack area on the right side for members to make food or munch on something during matches.
As one makes their way deeper into the room, they can see a couple of sofas set in for the guests to relax during matches.
There is also a huge imprinted picture of Messi kissing the FIFA World Cup trophy just behind one of the sofas printed on a black wall.
The members can watch the match from the best view possible as there is a place created to get a perfect view of whatever is happening on the ground.
Messi shares a nice relationship with River Plate and had actually even admitted to having been close to joining them as a child.
He told Fox Sports in 2019: “I went to Riverbecause one of my teammates went to Buenos Aires to try out. I played 20 minutes and scored four goals and they told me to come back with a permit. They wanted to pay for my hormone treatment, something that they didn’t do at Newell’s Old Boys. But when I went to look for the permit [at Newell’s Old Boys] they never gave it to me. Then later I went to Barcelona.”
Messi had played against River Plate back in 2015 as a Barcelona player, when one fan had reportedly spat on him. Fast-forward eight years and now he’s been treated as a king at the Monumental and has a palace booked for him forever in the iconic stadium.
