NEW JERSEY (Special Envoy).— It’s a photo. It’s a flag. It’s a tattoo. It’s a mural. And now it’s also a street. In a small municipality in New Jersey, less than half an hour from MetLife Stadium, where this Sunday Argentina will play the World Cup final against Spain, Lionel Messi has a block named after him. The sign reads “Leo Messi Way,” was approved by the municipality of Berkeley Heights on a temporary basis until the end of July, and was born from the initiative of two Argentines who have lived in the United States for years.
Behind the idea is Carolina Sokalsky, owner of Patria Station Café, a shop located right across from the sign. She arrived in the country in 1995 as a dancer for the Forever Tango company. After traveling through different countries, she decided to settle in the New York area, started a family, and years later opened a café with Argentine identity alongside her children. “From the beginning, we wanted to create a little piece of Argentina in New Jersey,” she says.
The menu is almost entirely Argentine: empanadas, milanesas, churrasco, choripán, sandwich de miga, polenta, facturas, and alfajores de maicena. There are also packaged products such as yerba, bizcochitos for mate, lollipops, and various cookies. All of this in an environment surrounded by pictures of Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona, portraits of popular characters like Pepe Biondi, Pepitito Marrone, Jorge Porcel, Alberto Olmedo, and Carlitos Balá, light blue and white pennants, classic car decals, the 1978 World Cup mascot, and a replica of the World Cup trophy.
During the first few years, most of the clientele was American or European, interested in learning about Argentine cuisine. But in recent months, the profile has changed completely. “Now I think 90 percent of our customers are Argentine,” she says.
The proposal came up in a conversation among friends. “The idea was Pablo Ponce’s. We started talking, I got encouraged, and I went to the municipality. I followed all the steps until I got the name change,” she recalls.
The request was submitted to the Township Council of Berkeley Heights, which approved the new name for a stretch of Sherman Avenue, in front of the train station and Patria Station Café, as “Leo Messi Way.” The authorization is valid until July 31, so the sign must be removed once that period ends, unless the municipality approves a new resolution.
“The authorities supported me from the start. Maybe at first they didn’t fully understand what Messi meant to us, but it helped that the World Cup was about to start,” Carolina explains.
The initiative exceeded all expectations. Images of the sign traveled through media around the world, and the café became a regular stop for Argentines arriving in New York during the World Cup. Many come just to take a photo and then continue their journey to Manhattan or MetLife Stadium.
Now the goal is different. Carolina has already started efforts to make the tribute permanent. “The news exploded. I think that will help them allow us to keep the name permanently,” she says. And she admits that an Argentine triumph this Sunday could also become another argument to convince local officials.
On the same corner, one of the walls of Patria Station Café features a mural of Lionel Messi waving an Argentine flag, which quickly became another meeting point for visitors. The work belongs to Argentine artist Vika Ferreyra and was done on the same day the municipality inaugurated the Leo Messi Way sign.
Berkeley Heights is not the first street dedicated to Messi. In Argentina, there are at least two precedents. The best known is in El Chañar, a small town in Tucumán that, after the 2014 Brazil World Cup, named the streets of a neighborhood after the national team players. There, Lionel Messi intersects with others dedicated to Javier Mascherano, Sergio Agüero, Ángel Di María, and Gonzalo Higuaín, among others. Three years later, in a housing development in San Vicente, Misiones, another Lionel Messi street was inaugurated, which again intersects with one called Javier Mascherano.
In Berkeley Heights, moreover, almost no Argentines live. “We are very few; I know only three families. Every now and then someone from a nearby place might show up,” she says, proud that her café has become a meeting place for compatriots. She also celebrates the possibility that the 2028 Copa América will be held in the United States: “That would be great. That way, every day we are more, and Patria also becomes a meeting point.”
While Carolina talks to this outlet, customers keep coming into the shop. Most wear light blue and white jerseys. This Sunday, she will set up a giant screen in the parking lot to follow the final and will offer two options: the regular menu for $20, and the so-called “Asado Experience” for $80, tickets for which have already sold out.
The dream now is twofold: another Argentine victory lap and Messi’s name forever on a corner in Berkeley Heights.
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che recien veo esto y me agarra una bronca terrible messi merece su calle para siempre no un permiso pedorro q vence para mi si ganamos el mundial se la tienen q bancar los yankis siempre con sus fechas limite q se vayan a cagar vamos argentina carajo
para mi esto es un golazo los yankis nos copian como siempre messi es D10S si ganamos el mundial la calle tiene que ser permanente no como esos zurdos de mierda que quieren borrar todo vamos argentina carajo