While Messi is most known for being the football legend who has reinvented the game and won innumerable honors, these and other incidents serve as a reminder that he is also a father. Seeing Mateo represent Inter Miami’s youth squad serves as a reminder of the coming generation and the transmission of a father’s enthusiasm to his kid. Messi’s smile at this precise moment represents more than just his joy at the goal; it also represents all that football has given him and all he hopes it will provide his kids.
Messi and his friend were watching Mateo’s score in that fleeting moment, and it was simple to understand how the game’s legacy would continue down the generations and how players’ passion of the game would continue outside of the spotlight into their personal life.