Happy birthday LEO :D :D :D

Messi escapes "sex and alcohol" party unscathed

Barcelona star Lionel Messi is back in Argentina preparing for the Copa America and it seems his countrymen are eager to give his nice-guy image a touch of the Charlie Sheens, with daily newspaper Libre claiming the World Player of the Year attended a "sex and alcohol" party in Buenos Aires.

Now Off The Ball can count on no hands the amount of soirees it has been to where at least one person hasn't drunk a beer or slipped away on a promise, but it's usually just called a party, with no need for the sex and alcohol pre-fix, but let's run with it.

Libre report that Messi's bash was hosted by reality TV beauty Xoana Gonzalez and a bevy of other South American sex symbols, including Playboy model Claudia Ciardone, lingerie model Andrea Rincon and former WAG Sabrina Ravelli, with the little maestro turning up in the company of the Milito brothers, Gabriel and Diego, and cape-wearing Boca Juniors legend Martin Palermo.

However, Messi still managed to emerge with his clean-cut image intact after telling the newspaper: "We just danced and then we played some PlayStation."

Off the ball: The naked party issue, espn

OK, who googled Xoana Gonzalez? I certaintly did........and wow.......

Vapotrini wrote:
Dude, tbh... at the end of the day, all of his off field antics are really none of your business. So regardless of if he cheated on his girlfriend with a million other girls, you can't "hold it against him". As it's his life to live. Too often players are placed too highly on pedestals only to be criticized and scrutinized for any little mistake that they make. People often forget that they're just people and will make human mistakes.

Enjoy when they're out on the field, everything else, isn't our business.

That's your way of seeing things but not necessarily mine.

The players I admire must be great on the pitch but also be respectable off the pitch.

My identity on this forum is messixaviesta. That means that if any of Messi, Xavi or Iniesta ever lose my respect, I will have to search for a new identity which would be nearly impossible. So most likely I would leave the forum if anything like that happens.

I was a fan of Ronaldinho till WC 2006 but after seeing him display such a callous attitude while playing for his country I began to hate him and to date I want to have nothing to do with him. So if Messi were to ever do something like that, copy his other antics like destroying the discipline in the Barcelona squad or do something on the lines of a John Terry or Ryan Giggs, then it's finito for me.

You say everything else isn't our business. So what about when Robin van Persie was accused of rape? If you were a fan of his, would it make no difference to you? I remember feeling sickened that instead of defending himself, he paid money to hush up the matter. This in turn means that even if he were innocent he has left some lingering doubts. Even now I can't help getting a bad taste in the mouth whenever his name comes up. Instead when a similar accusation was made against Cristiano Ronaldo, he openly came out to face the authorities and explained clearly that he had done nothing wrong. I really appreciate that. Something on these lines happened with Robinho as well but I think it proved to be a flimsy accusation. Some time back Patrick Kluivert had such an accusation leveled against him but I have not read enough about that matter to comment much more. Anyway what I mean to say is while some people may hardly be affected by such things, they do affect me quite a lot and I am going to admit that openly.

We human beings are different and thus see such things differently. How much you would be affected by all such things and how much I would be are two entirely different matters.

JuvenelCuore wrote:Well I think you guys understood me...it's not like it made me think any less of Lionel because I do not know the perimeters...just sad in terms of I thought they were a nice couple with a nice story, etc. Lionel is still the classiest top five player in the world by far.

You and I do seem to have something in common on human matters because I too feel bad when a nice couple I knew about breaks up. Hoping this doesn't happen to Iniesta.

As for your classiest top five player comment, Xavi is a top five player and probably Iniesta is as well. I don't think any of those guys are any less classy than Messi.

barcaloner90 wrote:thats a shame. felt being in a stable, healthy relationship with his childhood sweetheart helped to keep him from the party animal lifestyle that led to our other genius ronaldinho's downward spiral. but seeing as all he did at that sex party was play fifa, I'm not overly concerned just yet.

See it's not that easy to draw firm conclusions. We have no idea why they broke up. If he broke up with her in order to enjoy the wild life then it's not something I like but still appreciate that he had a honest break up with her rather than cheating behind her back. On the other hand if the breakup was for any of the many other reasons why couples break up then it's perfectly understandable because they are after all human beings. After breaking up with his girlfriend if a man wants to enjoy the liberal pleasures of being single then I can completely accept that.

Now as to being a party animal, as long as he does that in his holidays there is no reason why I should mind. However when he steps on the pitch in Copa America I expect to see the Messi that I knew who almost never would offer anything less than complete and total dedication. The same goes for when he comes back from his vacation and plays for Barcelona. This is the guy who has not yet won the love and affection of his countrymen. This in spite of winning Olympics 2008, suffering patiently the madness of the Diego Maradona reign, sacrificing his holidays and once a Barcelona match to be able to help his national team, being his country's best player and one of the ten best players at WC 2010 and now excelling in almost every single match since Sergio Batista took over. As an Indian I can understand this very well because I/we did the same thing to Sachin Tendulkar. When someone is too good you forget to appreciate that you should be grateful they are your compatriot, your expectations of them are unrealistically high and the slightest failure leads to very unjust criticism. Several Argentines want Messi to win them the world cup somehow and don't bother to appreciate the constraints under which he has to function. Only if he wins them that will he get their total respect and affection but winning the Copa could make things a lot better and let's hope that happens.

The Franchise wrote:OK, who googled Xoana Gonzalez? I certaintly did........and wow.......

Well you made me do it and you are quite right but I am still more interested in who is in nick's signature. Knowing her name would be nice.

BTW what was Diego Milito doing at this party? The fellow is married as far as I know as he came with his wife to collect his UEFA awards last season.

messixaviesta wrote:

The Franchise wrote:OK, who googled Xoana Gonzalez? I certaintly did........and wow.......

Well you made me do it and you are quite right but I am still more interested in who is in nick's signature. Knowing her name would be nice.

BTW what was Diego Milito doing at this party? The fellow is married as far as I know as he came with his wife to collect his UEFA awards last season.

Milito? We dont know what he did, maybe he didnt do anything so him being married doesnt really matter. Does it?

messixaviesta wrote:

The Franchise wrote:OK, who googled Xoana Gonzalez? I certaintly did........and wow.......

Well you made me do it and you are quite right but I am still more interested in who is in nick's signature. Knowing her name would be nice.

Kana Kurashina

The Franchise wrote:
Milito? We dont know what he did, maybe he didnt do anything so him being married doesnt really matter. Does it?

Fair enough. Anyway I was half kidding.

taoito wrote:

Kana Kurashina

Thank you mate.