Lionel Messi It is the most sought after shirt. It is the photo with the most likes in the Instagram story. It’s a mug with the already classic “what are you looking at, stupid” that is snapped up at fairs. He is the face of a beer, a world champion clothing brand, an energy drink, a cryptocurrency platform, an oil company that sells almost as many footballs and T-shirts as fuel and lubricants. He is the protagonist of a soccer simulator who wants to become the most popular of all. It is the most downloaded skin of the most classic of shooter video games.

Lionel Messi is the cool guy who gets you the best band of all for your party of 15. He is the loving father of Thiago, Mateo and Ciro and the model husband of a woman, Antonela Roccuzzo, whom everyone would like to be his wife. He is the “candidate” for president who adds the most votes in a poll of all politicians and all political parties. He is the Santa Claus who brought the most beautiful Christmas present to Argentines and who sealed the damn crack for a while.

He is Lionel Messi and he is the magnet of the world.

Buying a replica of the official national team shirt with the three stars is mission impossible right now.. Not to mention if you want to add the magical number 10 and the five letters that make up your last name. But this is not a new or post-December 18 phenomenon.

A few days before the World Cup final against France in the unforgettable Lusail stadium, “Messimania” had exploded globally and the 10 jersey was sold out worldwide. In Argentina, as Scaloneta made her way into Qatar, getting hold of the boss was harder than putting the magic cube together in 30 seconds. The brand with the three stripes, technical sponsor of the national team, was unable to satisfy the demand. “55% more sold than the 2018 World Cup in Russia, well above our projections”commented by the firm of German capitals.

This Wednesday at noon, the poster of “Exhausted” He was still stuck on the adidas app and website when he wanted to buy the starting shirt with the three stars that is sold in exchange for 23,000 pesos. The jersey is made by RA Intertrading. The garage had added new production lines to cover the demand that had surged ahead of the shoot-out victory over France in unstoppable Kylian Mbappé. “Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t increase the volume because making T-shirts is an artisanal job that requires skilled personnel, such as seamstresses and cutters”they explained to this newspaper.

Not even the haberdashery shops in the neighborhoods of the City of Buenos Aires and the GBA are enough. You must sign up so that the seamstresses hand-embroider the third star on the shirts that are left with two. It’s all Leo’s fault. Imagine if the Panini figurines came out these days…

Does it only happen in Argentina? The jacket with the additional star of the Les Bleus executioner is also on sale on the official adidas website in France. It costs 90 euros, but can only be obtained from Thursday 13 April. You have to be patient.

And all because of Messi. But this is nothing new. He told it in this newspaper during the coverage of the 2022 World Cup. The Argentine shirts were – and will be the majority – on the streets of Doha. It is worth remembering a visit to the unmissable National Museum of Qatar to understand that this 168cm Rosary was already the most revered footballer on the world map.

The albiceleste jersey with the number 10 was the clothing worn, without exaggeration, by 60 percent of the visitors to that magical desert rose that keeps the secrets of a nation. And if it wasn’t Argentina’s 10th, it was PSG’s 30th. Messi, who had not yet pronounced the “what are you looking at, stupid” and he was far from a champion, he was already the most repeated figure in the Middle East.

Not to mention the moment he lifted the World Cup and Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani placed the bist, that tunic in black tulle with golden details which has already become the most desired object by collectors. This cloak, used by the Arabs in major events -comparable to the tuxedo in the West-, he quickly became the most sought-after garment in the Souq Waqif market. Until Sunday 18, exaggeratedly, five a day were sold, counting all the shops distributed in those zigzagging corridors where it’s not worth buying without bargaining. On Monday the 19th there was no place that didn’t offer it. The value? The negotiation started from three thousand riyals, about 800 dollars. It was available for much less.

Messi is the king of the world. And he’s also the king of Instagram. The photo in which he travels in litter with the FIFA Cup already has 73.7m likes and falls far, far behind the 58.7m egg which has long held an unlikely world record.

But the most striking thing is that the top 5 of the most “like it” of the social network is completed with three more from Leo: the one who sleeps with the cup in Ezeiza’s premises, the one with chess with the devalued Cristiano Ronaldo who is part of a Louis Vuitton campaign and the one with a wide smile with the cup who waited so long on the plane. Over 40M of likes in all. Of course, strange contradiction, the Portuguese is still the celebrity with the most followers on IG: he has 524 million against the 411 of the Argentine.

And if you want to cut back on social networks or the World Cup matches, you can continue to enjoy the best. For $20 you can become Messi in Call of Duty: Warzone. And kill enemies with Blue Thunder weapon which has Atomic Flea sticker. All fans of this video game, one of the 10 most played today, want to have Leo on their side.

“I had to buy you”he wrote Emiliano Dibu Martinez, the other hero of the final in Lusail, along with a hearts in eyes emoji to the publication in which Leo himself spread the launch. This is one of the many collaborations that he does the Argentine captain, who became an even more powerful money-making machine. Messi is also the face of “e-football”, Konami’s old Pro Evolution Soccer, which wants to go back to being the most played football simulator on the planet.

In fairs and companies in Argentina, cups with the “what are you looking at, idiot, go there” They don’t stop selling. They have hardly lost any Christmas trees. And if it wasn’t a cup, it was a shirt. Did your Dutch friend Wout Weghorst get one? In Spain, the country that has lost the phenomenon since it set out to conquer Paris, the classics don’t stop selling caganers -a figure that shows the buttocks and accompanies the mangers- with the image of a Selection Messi. The phenomenon is global.

From Buenos Aires to Doha. From Doha to Paris. From Paris to Barcelona. From the real world to the virtual world, Messi appears everywhere. He makes the value of cryptocurrencies soar and is even the protagonist of a survey that Giacobbe Consultores has carried out in recent days and which measured the man from Rosario in a hypothetical presidential election to reach the Casa Rosada.

“If these were the candidates, who would you vote for?” they asked. And Leo, out of a universe of 2,500 cell phone samples, took 36.7 percent of subscriptions, three times what was collected by Javier Milei (12%) and Cristina Kirchner (11.3%) and well above the trident of Together for Change made up of Patricia Bullrich (8.8%), Mauricio Macri (6.9%) and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta (2.9%).

Messimania is hot. If even the Merry Christmas greetings have been renamed, in English, from the Argentine 10. Or who has not received the meme of Santa Claus wishes messi christmas instead of Merry Christmas. There was even an adhesive poster on the streets of Madrid with the idol of Rosario.

It is that Messi has taken on biblical overtones, to become a Messiah. Yes, from now on, with double. For both believers and atheists. He is the one who came to change everything. And, in a few years, there will be thousands of children named Lionel Andrés or Lionela Andrea. The Antonelas will multiply. For him. And in countries that allow it – let’s say Bangladesh – Messi will be his first name.

Is it better than Maradona? Is he better than Pele? Is he the best ever? Are there still table intellectuals capable of differing on his ability and greatness? Is it possible that he no longer divides the waters?

For now, the Oxford and RAE dictionaries should stop looking up the word of the year. There is no doubt: it is “Messi”. And it has many meanings. Is the captain of the national team the most famous man on the planet? Likely. Today he is the king of football, the idol of adults and children and even the first or last tattoo, done right or wrong, of millions of people.