I’ll admit it upfront: I’m no die-hard soccer fanatic. Please don’t come for me. But when you grow up in a house full of boys, football seeps into your bloodstream whether you like it or not.
You absorb the language. The loyalties. The endless GOAT debates that never quite end and frankly don’t need me weighing in when the track record speaks for itself.
What does linger, though, is the curiosity. The same one we have about anyone the world collectively worships.
Who are they when the boots come off? When do the cameras power down? When they’re just… human.
Doing the kind of quietly strange, ordinary things we all do when no one’s watching. (Free will, right?) Which is why his recent viral interview with “LUZU TV” felt less like a sports moment and more like a cultural one. Because when someone this globally revered, with eight Ballon d’Ors, a World Cup winner, MLS champion with Inter Miami, decides to pull back the curtain, people lean in.
Not to hear about goals, but to see who he is when the boots are off, and the house is loud.
Lionel Messi is famously private and rarely gives interviews unless duty demands it. He’s built a career on letting his football do the talking.
As he put it plainly in the interview, via “Barca Universal”: “I don’t like being in the media for anything other than what I do on the pitch: football.”
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And yet, here he was. Talking about therapy. Family. Solitude. Routine. Fatherhood. Love.
At 38, with a career that reads like mythology and a new chapter unfolding in the US with Inter Miami, Messi allowed the world a glimpse into his inner life. Not the highlight reel version, the real one.
Spoiler: He is a sensitive, structured, wine-with-Sprite kind of guy who watches TikTok and gets overwhelmed by messy houses. Could Messi be… like us?
“I’m sensitive, I cry a lot.” Yes, you read that right. The man who’s scored over 800 career goals and made defenders look like amateurs admitted he’s a crier. “I’m sensitive. I cry a lot while watching movies,” Messi confessed. Same, Leo. Same.
It’s not every day you hear a global sports icon admit something so vulnerable, and it’s these honest, candid human confessions that have made his recent interview go viral.
Messi’s openness about his emotions is a breath of fresh air in a world where athletes are often expected to be stoic and unshakeable. And it’s not just movies that bring out his sensitive side; he’s also touched on his mental health journey.
“I changed a lot.”
During his time at Barcelona, Messi revealed he sought therapy, a topic that’s still considered taboo for many, especially in high-pressure sports environments.
“I did it in Barcelona and then I didn’t do it anymore,” he said. I’m someone who bottles things up, who keeps problems inside. But I changed a lot.”
His honesty about therapy is a powerful reminder that even those who seem invincible need help sometimes.
For Messi, his wife, Antonella and his father, Jorge, are his emotional anchors.
Antonella, his childhood sweetheart and mother to their three sons, Thiago, Mateo and Ciro, is his go-to for daily life struggles. But when it comes to soccer, it’s all Dad.
“I talk a lot with my dad. After games, I’d text him or we’d watch together and talk.” It’s a beautiful balance of professional and personal support, proving that even the GOAT needs his inner circle.
It’s a dynamic many families will recognise: different people holding different pieces of us.
Then there’s solitude, the kind that feels almost rebellious in a house full of kids and noise. Messi admitted he actively craves moments alone, even if that makes him sound, in his own blunt words, “weirder than shit.”
“The mess at home with the three kids running everywhere ends up saturating me,” he said.
“I like my moment of solitude.” Some TV. A game. Nothing special, which, in itself, is the point.
Messi also described himself as deeply structured, almost rigid in his routines. Sudden changes throw him off. Small disruptions affect his mood. Antonella, he admitted, often understands and articulates his emotions better than he can.
Then came the details that truly broke the internet.
Messi watches TikTok. A lot.
“I watch TikTok a lot. I saw an AI video where I was being arrested,” he said, casually. Proof that algorithm chaos spares no one, not even Messi. He also enjoys celebrity gossip TV. The kind of switch-off many of us indulge in without admitting it publicly.
And yes, he talks to Bad Bunny. “Sometimes I talk to Bad Bunny on Instagram. He’s a phenomenon.” Just two global icons sliding into each other’s DMs. No big deal.
Perhaps the most unexpected revelation? His drink of choice. While other athletes are associated with whisky, champagne or headline-grabbing excess, Messi keeps it simple.“I like wine,” he said. “I mix it with Sprite if I want to get drunk faster.”
Unorthodox? Absolutely. Relatable? Weirdly, yes. Life in Florida, since he moved to the United States, has softened the noise. Compared to Barcelona, where Messi couldn’t walk unnoticed, the US offers anonymity, space and a slower rhythm.
Football matters less here, he noted, and that difference has given his family room to breathe.
