After Cristiano Ronaldo was compared to Antony Starr’s Homelander from Amazon hit “The Boys” series, fans and social media accounts have now started the trend, but with Lionel Messi compared to Soldier Boy, played by Jensen Ackles, another character from the same series.
The meme started and took off due to the physical resemblance between Messi and Soldier Boy, and also as a result of fan rivalry because of Ronaldo being compared to Homelander before.
Messi’s current 2026 look (at the MLS and not World Cup) with rugged hair and beard has earned significant attention from fans because of his attractive features while also resembling Jensen Ackles’s Soldier Boy from the smash hit Amazon Prime series.
At the same time, fans took this opportunity to create a counterpart for Cristiano Ronaldo’s Homelander meme.
But there is a bigger picture to how fans are viewing this meme trend.
In the series, Soldier Boy is portrayed as the ultimate superhuman, with raw strength and power, specialising in hand-to-hand combat. Homelander was created from Soldier Boy’s genetic material in a lab, technically making Soldier Boy the father of Homelander.
When applied to the football stars, Messi fans have pointed out that in football it is the same thing and that Lionel Messi is the absolute genius or “father”, possessing raw talent and strength, as they like to call it, in modern-day football. Some fans have also joked about Messi being Ronaldo’s father when it comes to football, like Soldier Boy and Homelander.
Messi fans have particularly been frenzy over his look at the Concacaf Champions Cup Round 1 first-leg match of Inter Miami against Sporting Kansas City on February 19th, 2025.
Which being the coldest match of Messi’s professional football career, and he scored a goal, leading to Miami’s victory. Messi appeared in what fans like to call a “winter warrior look”, with slightly longer rugged hair and a scruffy beard, and his Fortitude Adidas kit with heavy thermal layering garnered fans’ attention, as it has quite an uncanny resemblance to Soldier Boy’s gritty warrior look.
Fans on X say that this haircut was the best in Messi’s entire career.
While both memes were circulating on different parts of the internet, they have resurfaced again on the internet, followed by the Messi – Soldier Boy comparison as a counterpart.
The comparison of Messi with Soldier Boy and Ronaldo’s Homelander trend earlier is generating buzz all over the football side of social media, as a sports and pop culture crossover always keeps the fans entertained and gives them something to discuss.
