Rosario Becomes an Open-Air Museum: The Secret Mural Circuit That Revives Messi's Childhood

The football star. The Captain. The No. 10 everyone admires. The one who, even when all seems lost, gives everything on the pitch and proves in the last minute that he is and remains the best of all. But before becoming a legend, Lionel Messi was a boy from Rosario who, before making the leap to Barcelona, trained at the «Malvinas Argentinas» Children’s Football School of Newell’s Old Boys. And in that city, where it all began, his story is told not only in jerseys or agonizing goals. It is also seen on the walls that have turned Rosario into a kind of open-air museum dedicated to the Argentine idol.

Exploring the Messi murals in Rosario is following the footsteps of an idol who needs no ticket. It is walking through a city that saw him born, on June 24, 1987, where his friends and family are, where every time he returns he becomes that neighborhood kid we all want to hug. A city that decided to give back something of all he gave to Argentine football. Because in Rosario, Messi is not only cheered in bars when the Argentine national team plays: he is also painted, looked at, photographed, and becomes a must-stop for fans.

The «Messi Circuit» is an initiative that seeks to leave the Flea’s mark on Rosario. The tour brings together a series of murals located in places that marked his childhood and adolescence, corners that saw him grow, fall, get up, and begin to build the path that would lead him to become the best footballer in the world. The project is born from the emotional bond that Messi awakens in the neighbors of his neighborhood. Through color and art, the works portray different moments of his life and pay homage to the illustrious citizen of Rosario. They also highlight the positive impact and social value his figure represents for the city.

The tour begins at his childhood home and ends at one of the most imposing tributes: the 70-meter mural located in the area of the National Flag Monument, which was recently renovated while Argentines enjoyed but also suffered, as tradition dictates, the World Cup on the other side of the continent. «This is the best place for Messi, a dream place, where our Paraná River embraces us, connects us with our homeland, and brings us together in front of the emblematic Flag Monument, our sky blue and white, with all the sun that Leo sees born from this place,» said Lisandro «Lichi» Urteaga, who was in charge of artistic direction with Marlene Zuriaga and her team (Betina Rían, Marcos Pascual, and Edu Barrios). The artists, together with Alba Pinturas, were responsible for restoring life and color to a work that is already part of Rosario’s emotional landscape.

In the heart of the La Bajada neighborhood, in the southern area of Rosario, is the Messi family home, where Lionel spent much of his childhood. Today, the neighborhood is decorated with 34 murals alluding to the national team captain. One of them is painted on the family’s property. «With feet on the ground, eyes on something bigger, and an albiceleste heart,» Urteaga described the work located at Estado de Israel 525, which was done together with Zuriaga, in mural and design. It covers more than 70 m² and commemorates the Copa América won by Argentina in 2022. On the corner of the No. 10’s childhood home, in 40 square meters, the Argentine star’s dream come true is represented; that moment he longed for since childhood, when he won the World Cup in 2022, is now immortalized in front of his first home. «The Kiss of Golden Glory, with the taste of what was achieved in such an immense challenge, effort, enjoyment, and individual and collective improvement»: this is how the artists describe their work Campeones del Mundo.

At just four years old, the story began of the little boy who many years later would become the captain of the world champion national team. At the Club Abanderado Grandoli, at the request of his grandmother Celia, Messi ended up playing a match in which one of his older brothers was playing and scored the winning goal. The typical celebration of Leo was born here, when he dedicated the goal to his grandmother. In front of the club is the mural «From Another Galaxy and from Grandoli.» It covers 360 m² and portrays Messi’s journey, his story, his passion, the role of his grandmother in his life, the ball and the goal, his friends, his family, his life in his native Rosario. The artists who participated are Lisandro Urteaga, Marlene Zuriaga, and Gabriel Griffa with the participation of Aldo Vercellino as illustrator, who painted the No. 10 on Tower Six of the monoblocks on Sánchez de Thompson and Gregorio de Laferrere streets.

While the 2021 Copa América was being played, a title Argentina won after beating Brazil 1-0, a large mural was painted at the intersections of Azara and Buenos Aires streets, in the La Bajada neighborhood, in front of his childhood school and 15 blocks from his home. It shows Messi’s face in the foreground with two boots hanging from his neck: the right one, black, and the other, gold. Between the boots, on his chest, there is a young Messi and a phrase that says: «From another galaxy and from my neighborhood.» Leo Messi’s school life took place at School No. 66 «General Las Heras,» located a few blocks from the house where he spent his childhood. His teachers remember him as a shy and quiet boy, but one who during every recess began to show that talent with the ball that years later would make him a legend. In 2007, Messi returned to the school to participate in a reunion of former students organized especially to welcome the star who was already recognized worldwide. Years later, in 2015, on the initiative of the Messi Foundation, a mural was made in the courtyard, signed by Brazilian artist Paulo Consentino, which is a release, a celebration, the goal that all Argentines dream of every time they see him in sky blue and white, and at the same time an inspiration for future generations that are part of the school community, for the little ones who dream big.

The tribute grew again with a new artistic intervention in Hernández Square, on Laprida and Azara, within the school grounds. There, a 50 m² concrete tank was transformed into a canvas for a work that reproduces the Qatar 2022 World Cup and is now part of the mural circuit that Rosario has. «The symbol of the achievement attained, embraced by the world, in the brilliance of expansive realization,» so describe its authors Lisandro Urteaga and Facundo Roma as muralists and Marlene Zuriaga in design. At 69 meters high, this mural became the largest tribute Rosario has dedicated to the captain of the Argentine national team. The work, titled «From Another Galaxy and from My City,» is part of a project that began in 2021, when the other mural in honor of the Flea was made in La Bajada. It was done by Jacinto Urteaga, Marlene Zuriaga, and Lisandro Urteaga, members of the Imagina Pintura Mural group, and covers an area of 534 square meters. The image shows a Lionel Messi looking straight ahead, standing on his land and under a shared sky. With one hand on his chest, he seems to embrace that sky-blue-and-white love that unites him forever with Rosario and Argentina.

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