The moving story of the stamp that thrilled Lionel Messi in his first interview as world champion

One of the most emotional moments of Lionel Messi’s first interview as world champion has nothing to do with the 36-year World Cup drought or one of his career debts, repentance for the gestures to Van Gaal or the memory of Diego Armando Maradona. The more humane Messi was reflected in his connection to the story of Juliana, two months pregnant when her husband Thomas died in a car accident in 2020, who was such a fan of Rosario that he printed thousands of tickets with a prayer for him . .

“Our Messi”is the title of the image that has Lionel’s smiling face on the front and that Thomas wrote to defend him from the harsh criticisms he received after the 2018 World Cup in Russia, to which he was present together with his brother.

Juliana sent a letter to the “Perros de la calle” program, the journalist Andy Kusnetzoff spread the story during Qatar 2022 and after the World Cup consecration he promised to send her one of the 10,000 stamps that the young man had printed for the best all-time player

“He was fed up with Leo, he loved him, his biggest dream was to see him emerge as champion with the national team”Giuliana said.

Thomás died in 2020 as a result of the crash when she was pregnant and her son Aureliano was born on 11 July 2021, one day after Messi was crowned in the Copa América, against Brazil, at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro.

During the interview with “Perros de la calle”, Kusnetzoff made a video call with Juliana to refresh the story and gave her the surprise of handing Messi the note which contains an Our Father prayer adapted to football language.

“It’s a pleasure to greet you, thank you for sending me the stamp. I’m sure Thomas saw me raise the cup somewhere, like so many other loved ones we’ve lost and wanted to see me champion”the captain said to a young woman excited by the situation.

“These are incredible things, I know there are many people who do crazy things for me and for the national team. This shows that for Argentines, football is not just football, it means much more and we can help many people to give them a little joy”speculated Messi.