Lionel Messi ‘completed football’ last month by guiding Argentina to win the Qatar World Cup title, adding another star to their crest. In doing so, he ensured to have won everything single major competition in his career.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or has broken almost all the viable records and has very little to achieve right now. There remain question marks over his future, with Leo’s contract at PSG expiring in the summer.
Whether he remains in the French capital or ventures on a new journey in his career still remains to be seen.
But for the time being, Messi is having as much fun as possible and doing it in a relaxed fashion. There are no more overwhelming burdens on him to perform for his country or any more major expectations to fulfil.
He does, of course, still has a major task of helping PSG win their first Champions League title – which he’ll aim to do this season.
With a star-studded team around him consisting of the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Achraf Hakimi – Messi knows the grind won’t be tormenting for him at PSG as was the case with Argentina at the World Cup. That is why he allows himself to take it easy during most of his side’s games.
Messi is, of course, more than just a footballer and a huge marketing tool for any brand around the world. He has millions of ardent fans who will buy into anything he does or promotes.
That is why brands or even individuals want a collaboration with him knowing how lucrative his image on their product can be.
The PSG star recently caught up with famous Magician Julius Dein at a charity event organized by the Strong3r Foundation and he unearthed something very rare about him.
Dein has over 6.5 million followers on Instagram and has made a career out of magic tricks and pranks. He even once bamboozled drake with a ‘Lollypop trick’.
Dein was able to create a comical scene with Messi and his PSG teammate Marco Veratti. He got the two players to join both their hands with his own and hold some kind of object together.
Soon after that, Leo started to laugh at the magician’s way of trying to explain just how the magic trick would pan out.
Dein doesn’t know how to speak Spanish but was trying his best to do so, knowing Messi doesn’t have a clear understanding of English. He said ‘un, dos, tres disciplina’ – which translates to ‘one, two, three discipline’ to make Messi understand it.
The magician apologized for his poor Spanish, to which an encouraging Messi replied ‘very nice’ in English! He would then go on to translate Dein’s Spanish words into French to Veratti, who obviously doesn’t know how to speak or understand Spanish.
But Messi’s cheeky little reply in English has blown the minds of some of his supporters.
Going by how he spent a huge chunk of his career at Barcelona and then started playing for PSG, all while appearing for Argentina, there was no real need for the Argentine to learn English.
However, the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner revealed in an interview with Guillem Balague in 2021 that he started to learn a little bit of English to help him.
It also appears, going by this video, that he’s developed a strong understanding of the language and also speaks some of it.
Considering that MLS side Inter Miami are being heavily linked to a move to sign Messi later this year, perhaps this little interaction proves that Leo might be preparing for a move to the USA by learning to grasp the English language well enough.