Soccer star Lionel Messi made his Twitch stream debut on August 11. Messi appeared on Ibai Llanos‘s stream after a day of celebrations at the Parc des Princes, where fans of the French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain gathered to welcome the Argentinian striker to the team.
Ibai briefly caught up with Messi while he was leaving Parc des Princes. The two casually chatted for a few minutes and Messi sign two t-shirts that Ibai will later giveaway to one of his lucky Twitch viewers.
While Messi seemed calm and content during the stream, he admitted that the fanfare around his move from Spanish soccer club Barcelona to PSG had fatigued him. “I’ve been tired, but I’m looking forward to it, enjoying myself and happy. It’s a spectacular squad at PSG.”
Messi’s Twitch Debut
https://twitter.com/Crisio__/status/1425421794111070212Messi was honored by the reaction to news of his move to PSG, he’s looking forward to a return to normalcy. “They take you from one place to another, non-stop. There are a lot of interviews, one after another. And what I want is to train and play. But it was nice.”
While Messi’s interview with Ibai was short compared to the press conferences the athlete was a part of, it was nothing short of viral. Ibai’s more than 7 million followers regularly tune into the streamer on Twitch to discuss soccer news and transfer rumors. During the broadcast, Ibai also shared some details about his experience at Messi’s Barcelona farewell dinner.
The streamer was invited to the private event hosted at Messi’s home in Barcelona. Ibai told his viewers that fellow soccer players, Sergio Aguero and Jordi Alba, were present. The group joked about Ibai’s loyalty to Barcelona’s rival club, Real Madrid, and the streamer revealed that he had an awkward moment with Antonela Messi, the soccer player’s wife.
Messi is by no means the first world-class soccer player to debut on Twitch. Sergio Aguero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Mesut Özil, and many more athletes have hosted their own streamers to reach their fans online. Despite this, Ibai holds the bragging rights for being the first Twitch streamer to secure an interview with Messi.