Argentine football star Lionel Messi, 30 married his childhood sweetheart Antonela Roccuzzo, 29 in his hometown in what has been called the "wedding of the century". A civil ceremony was held at a luxury hotel in the city of Rosario.

Football stars and celebrities were among the 260 guests, with hundreds of police deployed for the event. Messi, the Argentina and Barcelona forward, met Roccuzzo as a child before he moved to Spain aged just 13.

Among the guests at Friday's wedding were Messi's Barcelona teammates Luis Suárez, Neymar, Gerard Piqué and his wife, Colombia's pop star Shakira. A number of guests flew into Rosario on private jets. Argentina's Clarín newspaper has variously called the wedding "the wedding of the year" and "the wedding of the century".

Messi and Roccuzzo have two sons: Thiago and Mateo. To celebrate his partner's first pregnancy, Messi placed the ball under his shirt after scoring in Argentina's 4–0 win against Ecuador on 2 June 2012, before confirming the pregnancy in an interview two weeks later. Thiago was born in Barcelona on 2 November 2012, with Messi attending the birth after being given permission by Barcelona to miss training. He announced his son's arrival on his Facebook page, writing, "Today I am the happiest man in the world, my son was born and thanks to God for this gift!" Thiago's name and handprints are tattooed on his left calf. In April 2015, Messi confirmed on Facebook that they were expecting another child. He missed training ahead of a match against Atlético Madrid to attend the birth of his second son, Mateo, on 11 September 2015 in Barcelona.