When Lionel Messi finally met Lionel Richie, the singer on whom he was named after

Finally, 37 years after he was named after the famous American singer-songwriter, Lionel Messi met with Lionel Richie, albeit briefly moments after Inter Miami’s game in Florida. Clearly chuffed with the meet-up, Richie instagrammed the moment with the caption: “When Lionel meets Lionel! Mom named him after me… And here we are,” along with a laughing emoji. “It was great to meet you after all these years.”
The story goes, as revealed Messi’s mother Celia Cuccittini in 2010. When Celia became pregnant, Richie’s song “Say You, Say Me” was in fashion.
“I went past the due date, it was difficult, it was scheduled. I went into hospital at 6am and Leo was born at 4.20pm. I was almost a week overdue and the doctor didn’t want to take any chances, so he said ‘we’re going to induce labor’,” she told the Argentine television channel Telefe.
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“As we didn’t have a boy’s name, I always liked Leonel. When Jorge put it, he put Lio! When he came, I almost killed him,” Celia laughed, adding the reason why the ‘I’ was chosen: “Because we liked Lionel Richie a lot.”
Richie had even sent a message in 2016 after Messi’s penalty miss in the Copa America final.“Yes, Lionel, just make it easy like Sunday morning. Don’t get all out of shape here. If I told you how many times I lost at the Grammies and it only made me do one thing – get better. So, I’m not even worried about my namesake – he’s going to be just fine. He’s a winner obviously. I’m sure he’s down right now but he’s a Lionel, he can’t go wrong.”
The singer had once told TMZ Sports about it in 2014. “They named him after me! How about that?! [My meeting with Messi] is gonna happen because I am quite honoured.” And he did end up meeting.
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