Argentine football star Lionel Messi said on Thursday that his father, who passed away on August 8, was “very excited” about the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, which he will receive tomorrow, Friday, in Oviedo during a ceremony presided over by the King and Queen of Spain.
In an interview with EFE at the Hotel de la Reconquista in Oviedo, Messi spoke about the values of commitment, respect, and solidarity that form part of the legacy his father left him.
His father, Jorge, was “very happy” about an award that goes “beyond what one does on the pitch” and beyond what Messi has achieved throughout his career, so “he will surely be enjoying it too.”
Because of the “meaning” of the award, his father insisted that he should travel to the Asturian capital to receive it, even though they knew it could be “difficult” due to the matches he has scheduled with his current team, Inter Miami.
Messi emphasized that the values his parents instilled in him at home are the same ones he now tries to pass on to his three children, together with his wife, Antonela.
On a personal level, the 2022 World Cup champion with Argentina said he felt “very excited,” “very happy,” and “very grateful” for this recognition. He also said he understood its “meaning” after spending more than twenty years in Spain.
Messi, who was greeted by hundreds of fans at the hotel entrance, many of them Argentine, as he himself pointed out, also highlighted the values he learned at Barcelona, the club of his “life.”
“When you're there, it's not just about playing football; football is a consequence of many things that have to be done, many responsibilities one has before going to train or to play,” he reflected, speaking about his development at Barcelona.
When asked about the pursuit of excellence, Messi stressed that “you train as you play are not just words” and admitted that, in his case, he does not like losing, “not even the short training games.”
“Since I was little,” he was “very competitive,” always trying to “win, grow and keep improving,” because that is “the path,” said the Rosario-born player. He believes that “training is for growing” and “then arriving at competition with the best tools.”
Regarding his charitable work through the SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona, which supports children with cancer, as well as donations for the DANA floods and the wildfires that affected western Madrid last summer, Messi said that he and his family always try to contribute and help wherever they can.
Messi, who said he tries to stay informed about what is happening around the world, noted that people today have much greater access to information about these issues through the media. However, he explained that he had helped in the past “without anyone finding out,” because he did not need recognition and “one does it from the heart because one feels it.”
Lionel Messi was selected for this year's Princess of Asturias Award for Sports in recognition of his “dazzling talent” and “exceptional sporting career,” as well as “his formidable and continued charitable work to promote access to education and health care for the most disadvantaged children,” according to the jury's assessment.
In recent editions, the award has been presented to American tennis player Serena Williams; Spanish badminton player Carolina Marín; Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge; the Olympic Foundation for Refugees and the Refugee Olympic Team; Spanish swimmer Teresa Perales; Spanish driver Carlos Sainz; American skier Lindsey Vonn; Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner and Polish mountaineer Krzysztof Wielicki; and the New Zealand men's rugby team, known as the “All Blacks.”
