Is Lionel Messi a Zionist?

Lionel Messi - the Argentine striker who played for circa two decades for Spanish football club Barcelona and now plays for Inter-Miami in the twilight of his career - has been in the news over his alleged links to Israel in recent years. So I thought I’d look into the matter.

Most notably Messi – who is a Roman Catholic – (1) was accused of being both jewish and Zionist by Egyptian government officials in March 2016, because he donated his shoes to an Egyptian charity; thus violating a negative cultural taboo which views shoes as being dirty and a sign of disrespect. (2)

The other aspect of this is Messi’s alleged donation of one million Euros to Israel in July 2014. This was a fake story that was originally published by the satirical French magazine ‘Le Competiteur’ but which was taken seriously by a multitude of media outlets around the world, (3) while in 2010 it was conversely alleged on Facebook that Messi – in his role as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF – refused to play against Israel only for it to emerge that it was completely made up nonsense after being picked up by various mainstream media outlets in 2021 and 2022. (4)

Moving from the realm of fantasy into that of fact; we should note that while in August 2014 Messi defended the rights of Palestinian children in Gaza. (5) This was during Israel’s brutal 2014 invasion of the Gaza strip aka Operation Protective Edge.

So this is therefore not that surprising and – if you look at the text of Messi’s comment as reproduced by Al Arabiya – it is unemotional, generic and banal suggesting that is the message that Messi – or Messi’s management – want to put out, but which may not necessarily reflect their actual views.

What is more personal however are the choices that Messi when is able to make when he is somewhat removed from the public gaze.

Two pertinent examples are his decision to pray – complete with a kippah – at the Western Wall in Jerusalem when he visited Israel in 2013. (6) This is a rather unorthodox thing to do as a Roman Catholic and smacks more of Evangelical Christian and jewish practice.

Also, Messi’s wedding in mid-2017 in northern Argentina purely employed Israeli guards, (7) which is again a very strange thing to do unless Messi has very strong ties – religious, emotional or otherwise - to the jewish state.

Thus while we have no direct evidence for Messi’s Zionist beliefs; what evidence we have – albeit it is circumstantial in nature – points to Messi indeed being a Zionist.

References

(1) https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/65034/egyptians-accuse-catholic-soccer-star-lionel-messi-being-jewish-zionist-middle-east/#6CfiXpDIqsR2XZsc.97

(2) Ibid.; http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-cries-foul-over-messis-shoe-donation/; http://www.jta.org/2016/04/03/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/soccer-star-lionel-messi-ripped-as-jewish-and-zionist-after-donating-cleats-in-egypt

(3) https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2014/07/135545/messi-i-did-not-donate-money-to-those-who-kill-children/

(4) https://dubawa.org/statement-on-israel-palestine-conflict-falsely-attributed-to-messi/

(5) http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/2014/08/08/Messi-defends-rights-of-Gaza-children.html

(6) http://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-cries-foul-over-messis-shoe-donation/

(7) https://www.samaa.tv/sports/2017/06/messis-star-studded-argentine-wedding-what-we-know/