Hello, you, person who makes soccer your entire personality once every four years when the World Cup rolls around. We’re here to talk about Lionel Messi—who, btw, just set a World Cup goal-scoring record—and his wife, model Antonela Roccuzzo, who was there to watch it happen:

If you, like many fans, are saying, “Messi is married???” then we’re here to catch you up to speed. Starting with:

Lionel Messi and Antonela Roccuzzo are childhood sweethearts

Lionel and Antonela have known each other since they were kids thanks to Antonela being the cousin of Lionel’s childhood bestie (and fellow soccer player) Lucas Scaglia. They even grew up in the same hometown of Rosario, Argentina—and while Lionel ended up moving away to Barcelona to pursue his soccer career, they stayed in touch throughout their teen years. Lionel even reportedly flew back home to support Antonela in 2005 when her best friend tragically died in a car accident.

Antonela and Lionel have been together since at least 2009

These two were pretty private and low-key in the early days of their relationship, though they did get papped a lot, usually while Lionel was wearing a Speedo:

They eventually went public in the mid-aughts and it’s been nonstop cuteness ever since. And since being officially official, they’ve occasionally given fans cute BTS pics of the early days in their ’ship. Prepare for your heart to skip several beats:

They had the “wedding of the century”

On top of being held at a luxury hotel in their home city of Rosario, there were some major A-list guests including Luis Suárez, Gerard Piqué, and Shakira.

They have three extremely cute kids

All boys, named Thiago, Mateo, and Ciro. While Antonela doesn’t speak to the media much, Lionel chatted to FC Barcelona about fatherhood and his family, saying, “You grow and you learn. You gather experience in all aspects of life, on and off the field. But, as a human being, having three children changed my perspective on life, my way of thinking and it also helped me grow.”

Antonela is a professional model

She has worked with brands including Stella McCartney, Adidas, and most recently Alo.

But she’s been modeling for years. Here she is signing a modeling contract allll the way back in 2016!

Side note: She studied dentistry

Before taking her relationship with Messi public, Antonela attended the National University of Rosario and studied dentistry as well as social communication. But she eventually moved to Barcelona to support Lionel and have cute moments like this:

She almost never misses Lionel’s games

Antonela is extremely supportive of Lionel’s career and rarely misses his games. So yes, obviously she was there for his 2022 FIFA World Cup win!

Lionel is obsessed with her

As he put it to FC Barcelona, “I really admire how she deals with the day to day, she is always in a good mood and she approaches problems admirably. She is highly intelligent and well rounded in all aspects of life.”

Manifesting this for myself.