In December 2012, Barcelona announced that Messi would sign a five-year contract extension which will keep him at the club until 2018 and raising his base salary to €16 million ($21.2 million) net, which will make him the highest on-field earner in football. As the tax bracket for this level of income in Spain is 56%, it means that Barcelona will have to pay Messi’s income tax of a little over €20 million ($26.5 million). His formal buy-out clause remains at €250 million.
Archive for the ‘PERSONAL LIFE’ Category
In March 2010, France Football ranked Messi at the top of its list of the world’s richest footballers, ahead of David Beckhamand Cristiano Ronaldo, with €33 million ($45 million) in combined income from salaries, bonuses and off-field earnings for the previous 12 months. In May 2014, Forbes ranked Messi second behind Cristiano Ronaldo in their list of the world’s highest paid players with earnings of $65 million in the previous 12 months.
In 2007, Messi established the Leo Messi Foundation, a charity supporting access to education and health care for vulnerable children. In response to Messi’s own childhood medical difficulties, the Leo Messi Foundation has offered Argentine children diagnosed with illnesses treatment in Spain and funds covering the transport, hospital and recuperation costs.Messi’s foundation is supported by his own fundraising activity with additional assistance from Herbalife.
On 11 March 2010, Messi was announced as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. Messi’s UNICEF ambassador activities are aimed at supporting children’s rights. Messi is supported in this by Barcelona, who also have a strong association with UNICEF.
He and Newell’s have also ended a long public feud. Messi funded the construction of a dormitory inside Newell’s stadium for the club’s youth academy, as well as a new gymnasium for the club. For their part, Newell’s has begun to embrace their ties with Messi, and plans to issue a special club membership card to Messi’s son.
In March 2013, Lionel Messi donated €600,000 towards the refurbishment of a children’s hospital in his hometown of Rosario, Argentina. The money was used to renovate the oncology unit at the Victor J Vilela Children’s Hospital, as well as paying for doctors to travel to Barcelona for training.
In January 2015, Messi teamed up with tennis star Serena Williams as ambassadors in a new campaign, called 1 in 11(represents the number of children worldwide who are unable to attend school), the result of a collaboration betweenUNICEF, the F.C. Barcelona Foundation, and Reach Out To Asia (ROTA). The campaign’s aim is to help children around the world reach their potential through sport and education by raising funds for education programmes.
Messi was at one stage romantically linked to Macarena Lemos, also from his hometown of Rosario. He is said to have been introduced to her by the girl’s father when he returned to Rosario to recover from his injury a few days before the start of the 2006 World Cup. He has in the past also been linked to the Argentine glamour model Luciana Salazar.
In January 2009, he told “Hat Trick Barça”, a programme on : “I have a girlfriend and she is living in Argentina. I am relaxed and happy”. He was seen with the girl, Antonella Roccuzzo, at a carnival in Sitges after the Barcelona-Espanyol derby. Roccuzzo is a fellow native of Rosario. On 2 June 2012, Messi assisted and scored a goal in Argentina’s 4–0 win against Ecuador in a World Cup 2014 Qualifying match. He celebrated scoring his 23rd goal for Argentina, by placing the ball under his jersey, as his girlfriend was reportedly 12 weeks pregnant. She posted on Twitter that she expected to give birth in September. Messi stated that the child, a son, would be born in October, and that he and his girlfriend would name him Thiago.
However, the birth came later than expected. On 2 November 2012, Messi became a father for the first time following the birth of his son Thiago. FC Barcelona’s official website briefly stated “Leo Messi is a father”. Besides, the Argentine striker added on his Facebook page: “Today I am the happiest man in the world, my son was born and thanks to God for this gift!” He also had the boy’s name and handprints tattooed on his left calf.
To celebrate his son’s first birthday, Messi and Thiago were part of a publicity campaign for UNICEF. Those who signed up and participated in the social-media campaign had the chance to win a pair of Messi’s shoes or a signed Messi T-shirt.
Messi has two cousins also involved in football: Maxi, a winger for Club Olimpia of Paraguay, and Emanuel Biancucchi, who plays as a midfielder for Paraguay’s Independiente F.B.C..
In 2013, Messi, a devout Roman Catholic, met Pope Francis, himself a fan of Argentine club San Lorenzo, at the Vatican, with Messi stating; “Without a doubt, today was one of the most special days of my life. We have to excel on and off the field.”
Messi has maintained close ties to Rosario and his family since leaving for Spain, and has gone to great lengths to maintain them. He keeps in daily contact via phone and text with a small group of confidants from Rosario, most of them fellow members of “The Machine of ’87”. One time when he was in training with the Argentina national team in Buenos Aires, he made a three-hour trip by car to Rosario immediately after practice to have dinner with his family, spent the night with them, and then returned to Buenos Aires the next day in time for practice. Messi has also kept ownership of his old house in Rosario, although his family no longer lives in it; he maintains a penthouse apartment in an exclusive residential building in which his mother lives (Messi’s father spends most of his time in Spain with him), as well as a family compound just outside the city.
Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, to parents Jorge Horácio Messi, a factory steel worker, and Celia María Cuccittini, a part-time cleaner. His paternal great-grandfather, Angelo Messi originates from the Italian city of Ancona and emigrated to Argentina in 1883. He has two older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and a sister, María Sol. At the age of five, Messi started playing football for Grandoli, a local club coached by his father Jorge. In 1995, Messi switched to Newell’s Old Boys who were based in his home city Rosario. He became part of a local youth team that lost only one match in the next four years and became locally known as “The Machine of ’87”, the year of their birth.
At the age of 11, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. Local team River Plate showed interest in Messi’s progress, but were not willing to pay for treatment for his condition, which cost $900 a month. Carles Rexach, the sporting director of FC Barcelona, was made aware of his talent as Messi had relatives in Lleida in western Catalonia, and Messi and his father were able to arrange a trial with the team. Rexach, with no other paper at hand, offered Messi a contract written on a paper napkin.Barcelona offered to pay Messi’s medical bills on the condition that he moved to Spain. Messi and his father duly moved to Barcelona, where Messi enrolled in the club’s youth academy.
ALIEN MESSI 