HUNDREDS of Argentina fans gathered outside a house in Lionel Messi’s hometown of Rosario.
Following the 3-0 victory over Croatia, the occupant of the home was serenaded with chants of “It’s Messi’s grandma!”
While initial reports suggested that the fans had congregated outside the home of Messi’s grandma, this turned out not to be the case.
However, resident Olga, 79, took the incident with good humour as Messi looks to win his first ever World Cup.
She told Telenoche Rosario: “I am proud of Argentina’s victory. Everything was so nice, I did not expect it.
“When I came to sit down again they sang ‘Grandma come back, Grandma come back’.
” I felt so loved, so happy.”
Argentine site Infobae confirmed that the resident of the house could not have been Messi’s grandma as both of his grandmothers have passed away.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner often dedicates his goals to one of his grandmothers, Celia, by pointing to the sky.
Messi often recounted stories of how grandma Celia kickstarted his football career.
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In 2021, he said: “When I was 4, I started playing at a club, and on a street, all the time.
“One of my brothers or cousins were playing and we used to go there every day because we are of different ages and categories.
“The ‘86 team, a year older than me, was playing and they needed a player — so my grandmother told the coach ‘put him [Leo] in the team’.
“’No, how am I going to put him in the team, look how small he is, you’re crazy, he’s going to get hurt,’ the coach said.
“But she [Leo’s grandmother] kept saying ‘put him, put him’.
“Apparently when I went, I did some things and from then, my grandmother came back and told him [the coach]: ‘Buy him football boots, I’ll take him to a training next week’.
“And that’s when I started. It was an amazing time.”
Messi’s other grandma, Rosa Maria Perez, has also passed away.
She is less well known but according to the book ‘Messi’ by Leonardo Faccio, her husband Eusebio Messi started taking the young Lionel to football when Celia no longer could.
Messi has been key on Argentina’s road to the final and won the player of the match award in the 3-0 semi-final win over Croatia.
He has scored five goals and produced three assists and is universally loved in Argentina.
He is idolised in Rosario and even has a giant 100ft mural painted on a building in the city.
Messi, 35, left his hometown aged 13 to pursue a career with Barcelona but his connection runs deep.
He played for the city’s main club Newell’s Old Boys from the age of six and scored more than 500 goals for the club.
The club even paid Messi’s medical bills when he was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency.
And in the final, Rosario resident Olga will be watching from the edge of her seat just like the rest the country.
She said: “Strength guys, we have to win!”
