Four-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi has admitted his life has changed since the birth of his son Thiago.
The Barcelona attacker’s partner Antonella Roccuzzo gave birth in November and Messi says he has adapted his behaviour since then.
‘My life has changed since Thiago arrived. I’m not the same man anymore,’ he told France Football.
Big change: Lionel Messi says Thiago’s arrival has changed how he thinks
‘When you have a child you just don’t think the same way anymore.’
Messi continued: ‘I wake up in the middle of the night just to see Antonella breastfeed him.
‘I bottle feed him… I behave like a normal dad who loves his son’.
Messi said the baby was the same as any other, adding: ‘he sleeps, he eats, he’s very quiet, just like his dad!’
Messi: ‘Mateo? He is an absolute bastard’
Lionel Messi reveals why his son Thiago doesn’t call him ‘daddy’ as he opens up on life outside football
Barcelona playmaker Lionel Messi has opened up on his life outside of football after putting pen to paper and signing a new deal with the club.
The 30-year-old finally ended months of speculation when he agreed a new four-year contract with the La Liga leaders, in a deal which includes a whopping €700million release clause.
That means Messi has committed to the club until 2021, by which time he will have spent 21 years in Catalonia.
With two children and another one the way, Messi now has deep roots in the region and has been opening up on his life outside the game.
In an interview with Marca , he has spoken about the effect his fame has had on his older son Thiago – and why he doesn’t call him ‘dad’ or ‘daddy’.
“Thiago already begins to realize, more or less, but not quite,” said Messi. “He likes to go to the stadium and watch the games, but he still does not fully understand it. Even at home he sees me and calls me Leo Messi, because it is what he hears from his friends, he still does not understand it at all.”
Messi also revealed that he has one vice that he has struggled to cut out of his diet.
“The chocolate,” he admits. “It’s the most difficult for me. Even now, from time to time I sin with chocolate.”
The Argentine is Barcelona and La Liga’s all-time leading scorer and has already netted 16 times this season – so that chocolate doesn’t appear to be much of a problem.
Messi will be 34 when his new deal at the Nou Camp expires and he admits he is not sure what his post-football life will entail.
“I do not know what I will do. We have spoken several times in the family about how I will occupy my time once my football career is over, but it is something that I do not have defined. I always said that as a coach I do not see myself, I do not feel it.
“When a few years pass, the same change, but today I do not see myself. I do not know, I still have several years left and then we’ll see.”
Messi’s more immediate future will be consumed by the task of taking on second-placed Valencia on Sunday evening.
