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| Messi with the World Cup |
As Lionel Messi ended his search for the World Cup trophy on Sunday after a thrilling final in which Argentina defeated the defending champion France in a penalty shoot out, it has been revealed that the 35 year old has once made a promise to Virgin Mary regarding winning the most prized trophy in football.
“I knew that God was going to grant this gift to me," the football star said while attributing his victory in Qatar to God when speaking to the TyC Sports television channel after lifting the World Cup trophy.
The Catholic News Agency reports that in 2018, the captain of the Argentina National Football team and player of Paris Saint Germain (PSG) in France was made to promise that he would walk from his country home in Arroyo Seco to Basilica of San Nicolás, a distance of about 24 miles to honour the statue of Virgin Mary.
In 2018, Messi who is termed as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) when it comes to football spoke with Argentine journalist Martín Arévalo in an interview in Moscow. The Argentine journalist Martín Arévalo challenged the World Cup winner if he would walk “to Luján or to San Nicolás,” two of the most important shrines in Argentina, if the team wins the World Cup.
The two sites are religiously well known as Lujan in Argentina, is the site of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lujan, a Roman Catholic Church building the patroness of the country, which attracts millions of pilgrims yearly.
In San Nicolás, there is a shrine of Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás, a title of veneration of the Virgin Mary, which is a city near Rosario, Messi’s birthplace with a history of Marian apparitions approved by the Catholic Church in 2016.
It was reported that in response, Messi promised that he would walk from his home in the town of Arroyo Seco to the Basilica of San Nicolás, a distance of about 24 miles, and shook hands with the journalist as a sign of commitment.
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