Lionel Messi is one of the all-time greats in the game of soccer. He’s also known for being a family
man as he and his wife Antonela Roccuzzo, who have known each other most of their lives, have
three sons.
While Messi and Roccuzzo are childhood sweethearts, they weren’t always together and Roccuzzo
dated another man. She eventually broke things off though to get back with the athlete and when
she did her ex had an interesting response. However, a few years later the pair were separated when
Messi’s family left Argentina and moved to Spain for him to pursue his career in soccer. His
relationship with Roccuzzo then became platonic and she began seeing someone else.
Maxi Lopez prior to getting back with Messi and when she made her decision public, Lopez had
something to say about it. He was dating Wanda Naraat the time who is now his ex-wife and the
sister of Diego Maradona’shand Of God goal scorer from the 1986 World Cup,Claudio Caniggia.
Maradona was then coaching Lopez at some point during this time as well.
“It hurt me more than anything that after so many years together as a family, I woke up one day and
my kids had gone without saying anything to me,” he explained in an interview according to Express
UK. “They told me that their mum had taken them away because ‘Papa works too much’.”
At first glance, this looked like a standard case of a jilted lover lashing out but there may have been
some truth to his words as Messi has admitted in interviews that he regrets spending so much time
on soccer and not enough with his family especially when they were growing up.
“I dedicated almost all my time to football”; he said according to The Telegraph.”. I don’t regret it
because it allowed us to achieve what we have achieved, but I do regret not being able to spend
more time with them when they were little.”
This may be one of the reasons why he tries to make up for lost time now by being involved in
everything from their homework to what they want for dinner according to Goal .com .His game has
also suffered as a result of his focus on his children as he doesn’t train as much as he used to
because he wants to be simply a dad when he gets home from work according to The Catalan .
It seems like Maxi Lopez may have actually had some insight into why Antonela Roccuzzo dump him
for Lionel Messi all those years ago. Messi has spoken about feeling guilty for not spending enough
time with his family when they were younger due to dedicating most of his time too soccer. He
clearly loves his wife and sons very much now as seen by how involved he is in every aspect of their
lives despite having one of the busiest schedules out there.
