Messi the dog is having a great time. Dare we say that he is now as popular as the footballer Messi?
Puppy Messi, who played Snoop in Anatomy of the Fall, which received five nominations and won an award for best original screenplay, had an eventful screening at Sunday's Oscar ceremony. He appeared to be sitting in the audience wearing a handsome black bow tie and tapped his foot. (We know it was all an act, just play along).
Messi even tried to help Oscar host Jimmy Kimmel with a joke by putting his foot up on top of Matt Damon's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (He really didn't pee, so whether he did or not, he was always trying to be a good boy).
Messi easily stole the show and reaffirmed why he should win the Port Car award with his incredible performance.
“Even though he's a dog, he might have had the best performance of the year on 'Anatomy of Fall,'” Kimmel said when introducing Messi.
Who was Messi (the dog) named after?
Messi is a 7-year-old border collie named after soccer superstar Lionel Messi.
Messi's trainer, Laura Martin Contini, is a professional dog trainer who lives in the suburbs of Paris. She adopted him from her neighbor when he was a puppy, she told the Guardian last month.
Here's the best part. Martin Contini said he was surprised when his neighbor picked the “ugliest dog in the litter”.
“There was something about him,” said Martin Contini, who named her two children Messi after the soccer legend.
USA TODAY Sports reached out to soccer player Messi's representatives to get their take on another Messi rising to fame. There was no immediate response.
The original Messi played for French soccer team Paris Saint-Germain from 2021 to 2023, after playing most of his legendary career with Spain's FC Barcelona. Messi, who won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, currently plays for Inter Miami in the US Major League Soccer.
His move to the United States caused a stir, with Messi hogging headlines and attracting large audiences wherever he went. He also recently surpassed his 500 million followers on Instagram, making him the second most followed person in the world. (Ronaldo is the first, but there is no Oscar-worthy dog named after him.)
Similarly, Messi (the dog) also saw his popularity explode after traveling from his native France to work on the American awards circuit.
But despite the arrival of a new Messi on the pop culture scene, there's no need to fear upsetting them. One is a goat. One is a dog.
