Messi says he’d rather be remembered for fighting than his eight Ballon d’Ors

Lionel Messi owns eight Ballon d’Or awards and four Champions League titles, yet when asked how he wants to be remembered, the first individual footballer ever to win the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports skipped the trophy talk entirely. Speaking to EFE in Oviedo ahead of the ceremony, he said he hopes future generations see him as “a great athlete who always fought for his goals and dreams.”

The 2026 laureate was recognized for his brilliance on the pitch and for the Leo Messi Foundation, which funds education and healthcare for vulnerable children. Still, it was the struggle, not the silverware, that dominated his answers in the days before accepting the honor.

“Sometimes I succeeded in achieving what I wanted, sometimes I didn’t… but I never stopped trying to win everything that was in front of me,” Messi said. For a man whose trophy cabinet is among the most decorated in the game’s history, the emphasis on effort over outcome is a deliberate choice — a blueprint, he suggested, for younger athletes facing the sport’s inevitable setbacks.

The losses that shaped the legend

That persistence was tested hardest in an Argentina shirt. Before the recent era of dominance, Messi endured a string of painful defeats in major finals, including the 2014 World Cup loss to Germany. The narrative finally turned in 2021 when Argentina lifted the Copa América, followed by the Finalissima and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Defeat still shadows the story. Argentina fell to Spain in extra time in the 2026 World Cup final, and Messi has pointed to that loss and the 2014 final as lessons in accepting mistakes.

Now in the later years of his career with Inter Miami, the hunger remains visible in every match. “He understands that while the world remembers the winners, the internal satisfaction comes from knowing everything was left on the pitch,” the report reads — a sentiment Messi hopes will become his lasting contribution to football’s history, more than any medal total.