Antonela Roccuzzo and Messi: the love story behind Argentina’s most famous family at the 2026 World Cup

Lionel Messi and Antonela Roccuzzo will celebrate nine years of marriage on June 30, with the 2026 FIFA World Cup already underway across the United States, Canada and Mexico. For the first time in Messi’s six World Cup campaigns, his wife and their three sons are already living in the host country. The family has been based in Miami since Messi joined Inter Miami in July 2023, turning what began as a childhood friendship in Rosario into a life built together on American soil. As Argentina pursues a second consecutive title, the anniversary falls while the tournament is still in play.

Messi and Antonela met as children in Rosario through Lucas Scaglia—her cousin and his closest friend from the Newell’s Old Boys youth academy. In a 2024 appearance on the Argentine streaming show Dispuestos a todo, Messi recalled first meeting Antonela when he was seven years old and acknowledged a mutual attraction that had always been there. Though the two drifted apart when he left for Barcelona at the age of 13.

In 2005, Antonela’s closest friend, Úrsula Notz, died in a car accident. Messi was visiting Rosario at the time and reached out. The two reconnected slowly, and around age 19 or 20—in Messi’s own words in that same interview—they became a couple. She eventually moved to his home in Castelldefels, near Barcelona, and by 2009 the relationship was public.

Three sons arrived over six years. Thiago was born in November 2012. In April 2016, a black-and-white photograph of Thiago kissing Antonela’s belly announced the second pregnancy; Mateo followed in September of that year. Three months after the June 30, 2017 wedding, the couple announced a fifth family member was on the way, and Ciro was born in March 2018.

The ceremony was held at the Hotel City Center in Rosario, in front of approximately 260 guests that included Luis Suárez, Neymar, and, at the time, Gerard Piqué and Shakira. Argentine singer Abel Pintos—a surprise Messi had arranged for Antonela—performed “Sin principio ni final”.

Paris, where the family relocated after Messi signed with PSG in August 2021, was a difficult chapter. In an interview with Mundo Deportivo, Messi said those two years left him unhappy and that he regularly missed his children’s school routines.

At the 2021 Copa América final in Brazil, COVID-19 restrictions kept Antonela and the boys away. After Argentina’s victory, Messi sat on the pitch and called them over WhatsApp—a moment that circulated around the world. In 2026, that distance is gone: the family already lives in the host country, and the boys are part of the soccer world themselves. Thiago, 13, is in Inter Miami’s U14 squad in the MLS Next program, according to recent reports, and Mateo trains at the same Inter Miami Academy.

For Hispanic families across the United States who have followed Messi’s career for two decades, this World Cup carries a particular closeness. The couple from Rosario who moved to Barcelona, passed through Paris and settled in Miami is now living its most visible chapter on American soil.

This content was produced by a LA NACION team with the assistance of AI and information from an article by Irina Repetto.

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