Matias Messi

Matias was born on June 23, 1982, in Rosario, Argentina. His father, Jorge Messi, was a manager at a steel factory, and his mother, Celia Cuccittini, worked at a magnet-manufacturing workshop. Matias’s father is of Italian and Spanish descent. Apart from Lionel, he has another brother, Rodrigo. He also has a sister named Maria Sol.

The Messi family moved to Barcelona in 2001. Matias had been dating Roxana Vallejos back then, and he missed her terribly in Barcelona. They had started dating when Matias was 11. He and his mother came back to Rosario a few months later.

Matias is now married to Roxana. They have a son named Tomas and a daughter named Luana.

In 2008, Matias was kept under nine hours of police custody for illegally possessing a firearm. A neighbor of Matias reported witnessing him carrying a 32-caliber revolver attached to his waist belt. The gun was found fully loaded after it was retrieved by the Rosario police. Matias, however, did not oppose the arrest and handed over the gun to the police without any objection. Prior to this, in 2000, Matias was involved in a robbery. Again, in 2001 and 2002, he was arrested for threatening people. However, Matias was eventually given a clean chit.

In 2015, Matias was arrested for possessing an unlicensed gun. He had a brawl with the local police officers when they found the gun in his car. His 'Audi A5' was stopped during a routine patrol in Rosario. Matias stopped the police officers when they tried searching his car. He ended up having a fight with the police and sustained multiple injuries, including a cut to his eyebrow. He was then taken to a nearby hospital for first aid. Matias was then charged with illegal possession of a gun.

In September 2016, Matias was found carrying an unlicensed 0.22-caliber pistol. However, he was not imprisoned. Instead, he was ordered to provide football classes for four hours a week, for a year, at a local club, 'Leones de Rosario.' Matias also paid a fine of eight thousand pesos and was instructed to stay away from drugs and alcohol.

In 2018, Matias was accused of assaulting the police. Reportedly, Matias assaulted them when they tried to arrest him for threatening a man. Matias’s 'Range Rover' had hit the car of a man named Javier Rivera in Villa Gesell. Matias had then threatened Rivera with a gun and had tried to flee. When he was stopped by the local police, he assaulted one of the officers. Matias was arrested on three charges: illegal possession of a firearm, threatening, and assaulting a police officer. In August that year, he was detained for illegally possessing a ‘Bersa 380’ pistol, which was found on his bloodstained speedboat. After being arrested, Matias was hospitalized, as he had fractured his jaw and nose after a speedboat accident on the Panama River. Matias was sentenced to two and a half years of preventive imprisonment. It meant that he was to be kept under police custody but would not go to jail as long as the investigation continued. He was also required to perform community service.

Matias has achieved significant notoriety on various social-media platforms, too. In 2013, he mocked footballer Cristiano Ronaldo over a "tweet." Matias posted Lionel’s trophy haul as a comparison between his brother and Ronaldo. After this, he had to face a lot of criticism from Ronaldo’s fans.