Argentina defender Marcos Senesi’s girlfriend revealed the contents of Lionel Messi’s heartwarming gift to 2026 World Cup teammates.
Argentina’s bid to become the first team in 64 years to defend the World Cup title ended with a 1-0 loss to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final.
However, the memories that this squad made with a 39-year-old Messi will live forever, especially with Messi giving all his teammates a special gift in the United States.
Lionel Messi’s special gift for his Argentine teammates at the World Cup
Senesi’s girlfriend, English influencer Kelci-Rose Bowers, shared on Instagram that Messi gave all his teammates a personalized backpack to carry a gold Stanley, primarily as a travelling kit to drink mate.
“This is for his mate, a mate gifted from Messi to all the players. A gold Stanley for everyone to have mate in. Marcos gave it to me to keep safe and take back to Miami.”
Messi also gifted a golden bombilla to all his teammates alongside the bag and the mate. A bombilla is a specialized spoon/straw that is used to stir the drink and sip it without getting chunks of herbs in one’s mouth.
Mate is a caffeine-rich herbal drink made with yerba mate. It’s widely consumed among the southern Cone countries of South America, like Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and Chile, among others.
Messi and the Argentine team are well-known for their fondness for mate, popularizing the drink across the world during the 2022 World Cup, as Argentine players imported pounds of mate to Qatar to serve as a healthy hit of caffeine for the players.
It’s a drink that is now very popular among footballers, especially South American footballers, due to the positive benefits of the herbal drink.
Whether the Argentine players who received this gift actually use it or keep it stored away as a cherished gift remains to be seen, but this is another example of why Messi’s teammates give it their all for him on the field.
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