Who will bathe in glory? The 20-year-old Messi and the five-month-old Yamal at a photoshoot in Barcelona in 2007. The two will now vie for football’s greatest honour.
| Photo Credit: AP

Argentina’s Lionel Messi celebrates scoring his side’s 3rd goal during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Jordan and Argentina in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Saturday, June 27, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

The strangest journeys are not made by people but by affections. They cross oceans without passports, survive languages they do not speak and arrive in places they were never expected to reach. Somewhere along that improbable route, Lionel Messi travelled from Rosario to a narrow lane in Ichhapur, where a tea seller painted his house in Argentina’s colours and waited years for the chance to tell the world’s greatest footballer a simple Bengali blessing, “bhalo theko” (stay well). 

On Messi’s 39th birthday on June 24, that affection transformed Ichhapur’s Nawabganj, an industrial neighbourhood located in North Barrackpore municipality of North 24 Paraganas, into a small outpost of Argentina.

The lanes were draped in blue and white. Banners fluttered overhead, streamers crisscrossed narrow streets, and posters bearing Messi’s face watched over the celebrations. A priest performed a puja before a life-sized statue of the footballer as neighbours, football fans and curious visitors gathered to mark Argentina’s most formidable forward’s 39th birthday. And this is not the first time, 52 year old tea seller and Messi devotee Shib Shankar Patra has been organising Messi’s birthday for the last 12 years.

Shib Shankar Patra’s devotion has made the annual celebrations a local institution. “He is God to me,” Shib Shankar or ‘Shibe da’ as he is fondly known as, says. This year’s festivities, however, were tinged with the possibility of an ending. “This is probably the last year he will play and as he quits football, I will stop celebrating his birthday as well,” he says, averting his gaze. 

Shib’s dream was fulfilled in December 2025 when Messi arrived in Kolkata as a part of Messi’s G.O.A.T India tour organised by sports promoter Satadru Dutta. Amid the crowds and the frenzy surrounding the legend’s visit, he found himself face to face with the man whose images, posters and prized moments had long hung from the walls of his home and tea stall in Ichhapur. Of all the photographs presented that day, Messi signed only one connected to him which was a framed picture of Shib’s Argentina themed house and stall.

Shib recalls with great pride, “He called me and I went forward. I shook hands with him and blessed him, placing my hand on his head and saying ‘bhalo theko’,” Patra recalls. “Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul were there too. I blessed them as well and said ‘bhalo theko’. God helped me reach Messi.” He pauses before adding, “He is the greatest player of all time. I had said so in 2010 and I am saying so again.”

The encounter acquired an almost improbable quality in hindsight. Messi’s visit to Kolkata in December 2025 had left many fans heartbroken, with thousands spending significant sums and travelling long distances only to catch fleeting glimpses of the footballer. Complaints followed after his brief appearance at Yuva Bharati Krirangan, where many felt the barriers between the star and his admirers had been reserved for politicians, dignitaries and their families. Against that backdrop of disappointment, Shib met his hero and walked home with a signed photograph and a memory that has since acquired the glow of family folklore.

For his wife, Swapna Patra, the celebration has never been about football alone. “Messi amar gharer chhele (a child of our home),” she says. Messi is a son of the house. “Everyone sees him as a great footballer, but we celebrate his birthday exactly the way we celebrate the birthdays of our own children.”

Explaining the scale of the celebration Swapna outlines that to mark Messi turning 39, the family arranged a 39 pound cake, prepared 39 varieties of food and 39 varieties of sweets, distributed 39 saris to women and 39 sets of shirts and trousers to men. Thirty nine football jerseys were handed out to children. “The jersey means a lot to children. It is a symbol of affection,” Swapna smiles. 

Their daughter, Neha, still speaks of the Kolkata meeting with the excitement of someone reliving a family milestone. Messi, Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul, she recalled, were particularly struck by the framed photograph of the family’s Argentinian white and blue striped three storey home.

“They specifically picked up that photograph and were thrilled to see it. Among all the photographs, they signed only that frame. Since my father is older than Messi, he blessed him. And De Paul hugged my father. All our hard work finally paid off,” says Neha. 

The distance between Messi’s hometown in Rosario and Shibe da’s Ichhapur is roughly 16,782 km but just for once life does its magic, the roads clear, the skies open up and the path is paved. And just like that, in a small corner of Bengal, Shib’s dream was close enough to touch. 

Published – June 25, 2026 02:09 pm IST