Meeting Messi: A Dream Come True

How did I meet Messi? And a lot of people ask me how it

happened. I’ll tell you, it’s a big dream.

And, man, I didn’t know how that would happen in

my life, but I said, “At some

point, I’ll make it.” Rafinha and I went to play in the Teqball World Championship,

in Poland, at the end of 2021, and my return flight would go through France,

I’d have a layover. And I said, “Wow, man, if I had the

chance to stop by there and somehow run into him,”

because at that time, he played for PSG.

But I said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

I sent Neymar a message, I said, “Look, I’ll have a layover in Paris, I’m

bringing a footvolley ball, my biggest dream is to meet Messi.”

Then he said, “Nathália, I can’t guarantee it, but I’ll try.”

That expectation was incredibly high in my mind.

I said, "Guys, do you think it'll work out?" I managed

to meet Neymar, right,

on the way to France, right. I was with him on one occasion,

the day before the

training session, and I said: "Gee, I know you're injured,

but do you think it'll work out?" He

said, "No, I even told him that you

were going, I already put in a word.

He even said he knew you, that he'd already seen your videos."

Then I said, "Don't kid around with something serious,

are you serious?" And

he really did say it, and I was, you know, unable to believe it in that, that

moment. I said, "Now let's hope it works out there."

I had that expectation, to go to training and make it happen. Then, all right.

Then on the day of training, I went, got to training, and I was really

anxious, uh

to see if I could meet him after training.

Sure enough, training ended, and I went to the waiting room, and I didn’t know

if he was going to

wait or not, you know, and all that. I was anxious to go

to the

little door, come back, go to the little door, come back.

Then, on one of those trips to the little door, I saw him coming out and went to

meet him. He saw me and was very helpful.

I already had the footvolley ball in my hand, I handed him the footvolley ball and

I swear to God, I’m not kidding, I turned pale and had no

reaction. I immediately started speaking to him in Spanish.

“How are you?

How have you been?” And he said, “Aren’t you Brazilian?” Then I

said, “I am, but my family is Argentine and all

that.”

But I couldn’t hold a conversation with him because, I confess, I became

very nervous, right? I— it was a dream to meet him, right, and

and be there face-to

face with him, talking to me, exchanging ideas.

Yeah, it felt like 15 minutes, when it was just a few minutes,

and it felt like an hour

there talking to him. And he was so polite, so helpful.

I gave him the ball, said his kids would really like it.

And I said: "It's a shame I couldn't kick a

ball around with you today, but one

day, I'll make that dream come true." Meeting him that day and chatting

with

him, giving him my ball, man, was something unimaginable to me.

So I thanked Neymar so much for making my dream come true that day.

And man, it really stayed with me, right?

Because after that, I got to be at the World Cup too, in Qatar, and see him

I was nearby, and ran into his wife and mentioned

the ball, and she and her son remembered

the footvolley ball, so in fact, he took home the ball that I

gave him. And man, he's a, he's a, he's a genius with the ball, a guy who played in

our generation and will be forever immortalized by all he achieved

as an athlete, as a person. That's it.

Neymar, thank you, dream fulfilled, check.

Because he really is someone I admired a lot and really wanted to meet in my

life. It worked out.