The hometown of Argentine football superstar Lionel Messi – Rosario – has been painted in the Argentinian national colors ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off next week in Russia.
Rosario is Argentina’s third-largest city, which has more than 1.35 million inhabitants. It is also the hometown of Argentina’s famous revolutionary leader, Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
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Residents of the working-class neighborhood of La Badaja in Rosario, where football legend Messi was born, have colored streets and buildings in white and blue to express their support for the national football squad, which will contend for the World Cup this summer.
“We are here painting the whole neighborhood with the kids before the World Cup so everything is blue and white,” said one of the volunteers involved in covering the city’s streets in blue and white.
“What we are doing is nice, apart from this, we are organizing other things, we want to hang flags and some other things like that a few days before the World Cup so everything is ready.”
The locals didn’t forget to draw the number 10 while painting sidewalks, lampposts and walls to remind everybody what number their football idol wears on the back of his jersey. Argentina’s most recent World Cup triumph dates back to 1986, when the legendary Maradona led his squad to the pinnacle of football beating West Germany 3-2 in the final.
Messi, who was born a year after Argentina’s World Cup victory, has constantly been compared with the national football icon, Maradona, and will hope for the same success that he enjoyed 32 years ago.
