Who is Antonela Roccuzzo, the wife of Lionel Messi? And why their love-story will melt your heart

It was the stuff of fairytales, as Lionel Messi picked up the World Cup 2022 trophy to celebrate Argentina's win over France on Sunday (December 18).

It's not the first time that Messi has overcome the odds to secure something important, as his love story with childhood sweetheart Antonela Roccuzzo demonstrates.

Antonela was five years old, and Messi was six, when they first met. The superstar footballer was actually childhood friends with Roccuzzo's cousin and fellow footballer, Lucas Scalia.

She was an artistic gymnast as a child and her parents owned a well-known supermarket chain.

Antonela and Lionel both grew up in Rosaria, which is Argentina's third largest city. However, Messi re-located to Spain when he was 13, to pursue his footballing ambitions. He apparently wrote love letters to Antonela when they were children, but their lives were going in different directions.

Roccuzzo was training to be a dentist in her hometown of Rosario, and Messi was in Barcelona making his name in football.

The pair could have easily drifted apart and met other people over the years.

It took a tragedy to bring them together finally as a couple. Roccuzzo's friend, Ursula Notz, tragically died in a car accident in 2007 and Messi flew from Spain to Argentina to be by her side.

It was this act of dropping everything to show Antonela support that cemented their bond.

The pair started to quietly date in 2007 and Messi confirmed the romance in 2009 during an interview.

Messi proposed in 2010, two years before welcoming son Thiago. The couple, who also share sons Mateo, born in 2015, and Ciro, born in 2018, wed in July 2017 in their hometown of Rosario, Argentina.

“The truth is that [I admire] everything [about Antonela],” the soccer star gushed to Marca in an October 2019 interview. “She has many good qualities: how she gets by on a daily basis; her personality; she is always in a good mood; and she always faces up to problems in an admirable way. She is a very intelligent person who is great in all aspects of life.”

This is a true romance story that has gone the distance, with the family all celebrating the culmination of Messi's career on Sunday, it looks like a marriage going from strength to strength.