Subscribe
Subscribe
- Motoring
- Style
- Home & Design
- Travel
- Food & Drink
- Specials
- News & Tech
- Videos
AI generated summary, newsroom reviewed
Lionel Messi has never been football's most conspicuous millionaire. Where others have built identities around supercars, private jets, designer wardrobes and ostentatious watches, Messi's public image has generally been quieter. But quiet luxury is still luxury. Over the course of his career, the Argentine has accumulated a remarkable association with haute horlogerie, luxury fashion and some very serious automobiles.
Now, following Argentina's defeat to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final, Messi has announced his retirement from international football at the age of 39. His decision, shared on Instagram on August 31, brings an end to a 21-year international career that included the 2022 World Cup, Copa América titles and another World Cup final in 2026. He is not, however, retiring from football altogether and will continue his club career with Inter Miami.
Here are five moments when Messi's world of football met the rarer air of luxury.
Messi's most extravagant recent encounter with luxury happened in India. During his December 2025 visit to Vantara, Anant Ambani presented him with a Richard Mille RM 003-V2 GMT Tourbillon “Asia Edition”.
The watch is an especially serious piece of haute horlogerie. The Asia Edition was limited to just 12 pieces and uses a carbon nanofibre baseplate, with a skeletonised tourbillon movement and GMT function. Its reported value was around US$1.2 million.
The gift came during Messi's multi-city Indian visit, which included Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata, his first return to India in 14 years. It was a particularly Indian expression of luxury: hospitality transformed into an object of extraordinary rarity.
Messi's relationship with Jacob & Co. is where his luxury credentials become unmistakably horological.
The first Epic X Chrono “Messi,” released through a three-year partnership, was limited to 180 pieces. The Grade 5 titanium watch incorporated the colours of Argentina's flag, Messi's famous number 10, his stylised “M” logo and his signature on the sapphire caseback. It was water-resistant to 200 metres and powered by a skeletonised automatic chronograph movement.
A later baguette-diamond version pushed the extravagance considerably further. Crafted in 18-karat white gold and titanium, it was set with 36 baguette-cut diamonds and limited to 36 pieces, with a reported retail price of US$150,000.
Some luxury images become cultural images. Louis Vuitton's 2022 “Victory Is a State of Mind” campaign was one of them.
Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo appeared together, seated opposite one another over a Louis Vuitton trunk and playing chess. The image was created for the campaign ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and deliberately turned the sport's greatest rivalry into a study in luxury, strategy and visual theatre.
The trunk itself was not incidental. Louis Vuitton's history is rooted in travel trunks, and the campaign brought the Maison's luggage heritage directly into the image. It was less an advertisement for footballers than a meeting of two global sporting icons with one of fashion's most recognisable luxury houses.
In August 2021, Messi arrived in Paris wearing a rose-gold Rolex Yacht-Master as he prepared to sign for Paris Saint-Germain.
The timing made the watch particularly memorable. Messi was beginning a new chapter after leaving Barcelona, the only senior club he had previously represented, and the Yacht-Master was on his wrist as he completed a reported US$80 million PSG contract.
It was an unusually fitting piece for the occasion: recognisably luxurious without being a diamond-encrusted spectacle. The Yacht-Master's nautical DNA also made it one of the more sporting choices in the Rolex catalogue.
Messi's relationship with Louis Vuitton did not end with that chessboard.
In 2023, he became the face of the Maison's “Horizons Never End” campaign for its Horizon luggage collection, designed by Marc Newson. Photographed by filmmaker and photographer Glen Luchford, Messi appeared alone in an airport setting with the Horizon luggage, surrounded by the visual language of modern travel.
It was perhaps the most natural luxury pairing of the lot. Messi's career has been defined by movement across continents, from Rosario to Barcelona, Paris, Miami and countless football stadiums in between. Louis Vuitton simply turned that itinerant life into an image of polished, contemporary luxury.