International Players

Who is Messi's bodyguard at PSG: meet Pepe Costa and his photos

By Juan Angel Aiesi

Lionel Messi is playing the qualifiers with the Argentina National Team. The Argentinean already made his debut in Paris where he took his own team with him.

Lionel Messi is playing the qualifiers with the Argentina National Team. The Argentinean already made his debut in Paris where he took his own team with him.

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Lionel Messi is currently playing the qualifiers with the Argentina National Team. He already made his debut in Paris where he arrived accompanied by his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, his sons Thiago, Mateo and Ciro, and his father. Immediately, a whole machinery was put at his disposal by the club, which was generating a new atmosphere, between old protagonists who continue to accompany him since his last years at Barcelona, to the new members related to PSG.

 

 

If his wife Antonela is the one who provides the necessary balance for his busy superstar life and together with his children is the grounding cable, in his various soccer activities there are usually three other people around him: Pepe Costa, Pablo Negre and Marcelo Mendez.

 

 


Like most of the team's stars, PSG is looking for a luxurious home for Messi and his family in the most exclusive area of the city, which is where the club's training grounds are located, between the Parc des Princes and the Champ des Leagues. Most of his teammates prefer the Neuilly-sur-Seine area, a municipality located in the Hauts-de-Seine department.

 

Pepe Costa: Messi's friend and bodyguard

 

Nearby, Pepe Costa, Messi's inseparable friend since his time at Barcelona, will also be moving in with his teammate. His son Alvaro has been assisting Neymar since the Brazilian arrived at the Catalan club in 2013, speaks perfect Portuguese and was in charge of bringing the two South American stars together, who connected immediately. That's what father and son worked for and will continue to do in France.

 

 

It can be said that Pepe Costa is Messi's shadow. He always accompanies him, never leaves him alone, under any circumstances. And he even appears in all his photos. He even accompanies him on vacations, where he usually goes with his wife and appears among the couples of friends like Jordi Alba, Luis Suarez or Cesc Fabregas.

 

 

Such is the closeness between the two that the captain of the Argentine national team made him weigh in on his new contract with PSG by considering him as his personal assistant, after Barcelona did not renew his contract just after June 30, the same day the player ended the relationship by being released.

 


For Messi, Costa is like part of his family. As a youngster in the 1980s, he was a modest professional footballer with teams such as Andorra, Sabadell and Murcia, spent three years working for Nike's Brazilian subsidiary and, on his return, was given the position of "director of player assistance" at Barcelona and became part of the dressing room until he was considered one of the players during Frank Rikjaard's time as coach, between 2003 and 2008, displaying what he does best, relating to the players, whom he tried to please in everything they needed and understand them like few others, having been a footballer himself. At the Catalan club, he was in charge of being the link between the staff and the board and, above all, of channeling the tensions that had been growing between the parties in recent years.

 

 

 

He ended up becoming close friends with Messi, to the point that Barcelona chose to send him with the player wherever he traveled. He even accompanied him to Argentina national team matches, for example. He was also invited to the Rosarino's wedding in 2017 and is now still with him in Paris to clear him of any problems and propitiate that he can concentrate one hundred percent as a footballer, even, if necessary, protecting him, with his 1.91 meters tall, if he is besieged in his movements.

 

 

 

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