Argentina star Lionel Messi’s wife Antonella Roccuzzo was involved in another relationship before she and Messi ended up together, and her ex-boyfriend’s comments have resurfaced online.

It’s believed that Messi and Roccuzzo had been together since 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥hood, having known each other since they were ten. However, one of Roccuzzo’s friends has said that it only got serious between them in 2007.

Before that, Antonella was in a relationship with another boy for a while. He spoke about them to a local newspaper in 2010, while also shedding light on his heartbreak. He had said (via AS):

“She dumped me, but at least she didn’t leave me for any old bloke – she dumped me for Messi…”

Messi and Roccuzzo were introduced to each other by Roccuzzo’s cousin, Luca Scaglia, who later recalled Messi asking him, “Who’s that?”. He added that Messi later wrote her a letter, saying: “One day we will be boyfriend and girlfriend.”

However, after Messi left Rosario for Spain to continue his footballing career at Barcelona, things remained platonic between him and Roccuzzo, who got into a relationship with another boy.

After realising that Messi was returning to Argentina, she broke off with her boyfriend, and according to her friend, she went looking out for Messi.

One of Roccuzzo’s friends even told Argentine magazine, Para Ti, that they realised the two had started dating during a ‘Friendship Day’ celebration on July 20, 2007.

The unnamed source was quoted saying:

“We met as we always had done’ and she took out a Blackberry phone which Leo had given her. She didn’t say anything else, but we all guessed that they had started seeing each other.”

After ten years of courtship, Messi and Roccuzzo tied the knot in July 2017 and now have three kids together – Thiago, Mateo and Ciro.