“I am the man of the day, of the week, of the year; whoever can tie me up”

What Lionel Messi He turned 37 this Monday, everyone knows it. However. Few knew that the world champion captain would come out to greet the people who gathered in front of the New Jersey hotel where he awaits this Tuesday’s game against Chile, for the second date of Group A of the America Cup. And almost no one imagined that in that special moment he would be accompanied by a man, unknown to many, who became the character of the day. Who is he? His name is Christopher Soria. They tell him “The uncle” and is a panelist on the popular TV show The Jugones Chiringuito. And he had the privilege of appearing alongside the king of world football and becoming the number one trend on social networks.

While Brazil y Costa Rica debuted in the competition in the last match of the first round of the group stage, Messi looked out of one of the windows of the Scaloneta hotel-bunker to greet the fans. As he did so, Soria appeared behind him. He hugged him and greeted the people. He then retired and summoned Ángel Di María, Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes, Nicolás Otamendi and Gio Lo Celso to accompany the Rosario star. And he mingled with them, as if he were one of the squad. A rockstar.

Everyone began to wonder who this lucky guy was.. And all roads led to social networks, the space where many of humanity’s banal mysteries are solved today.

And there you can begin to resolve the story. Days before traveling to the United States to watch the Copa América, the panelist had announced in Spain that he would go directly to the Argentine National Team hotel to celebrate Messi’s birthday. He is like Rosario’s number 1 fan. The program, it is worth clarifying for the unsuspecting, is the same one that went viral in Argentina after former goalkeeper Jorge D’Alessandro, also a panelist as “El Tío” Soria, labeled the midfield players of the team “Ferraris”. Selection.

“Uncle Soria is leaving on Monday for New York, near the hotel where the Argentine National Team is concentrated. At six in the afternoon, I want to summon all the Messianics of the football planet to sing to Messi the happy birthday he deserves.” and bring him the cake he deserves for his 37 years. And, of course, we are going to invite him to come out and tell us things, celebrate with us and blow out the candles,” he predicted.

Soria promised and delivered. And after becoming the man of the day, Clarion He interviewed him to learn a little more about his life. He told him that he was one of the first journalists to interview Messi when he arrived in Spain to play for Barcelona. When he was still a youngster of Maradona.

And now, as exposed in each of his programs, he is the number one fan. In fact, on Sunday night he was in AFA Studythe streaming of the parent company of Argentine football, and was campaigning for Leo to receive the ninth Ballon d’Or in case this story in the Copa América ends with him lifting the trophy.

“The man of the day? The man of the day, of the week, of the month, of the Copa del América and of the year. The one who may tie me”he told Clarion after the meeting with Messi. Next, the one-on-one with “El Tío” Soria.

-Cristóbal Soria, the man of the day here in New Jersey. What happens to your body after you have achieved what you set out to do?

-But no… The man of the day does not… Forgive me. The man of the day, of the week, of the month, of the America’s Cup, the Man of the Year… In other words, I have embarked on it. And now whoever wants to tie me, whoever wants to now or whoever can, better said, whoever can, whoever can tie me.

-Tell me how the plot was, that moment before opening the window.

-No plot. It’s admiration. They were waiting for me because they knew that we had been plotting this for a long time, we had been wanting to tell it for a long time. And obviously when Leo and I see each other, the only thing we do is have respect, admiration. And I tell him… what am I going to tell him? What it means to all of us who love football. I am not Argentine, but I love him like any other Argentine and he knows it. So, if he has these signs of complicity with me, what do I do? I’m dying or I don’t want to die. If the police come tonight and said they didn’t want this to happen, if they come tonight and they put me in jail, I don’t have any problem. No problem. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

-What do you say to those who, perhaps, say that Messi is not humble or does not have a feeling with people?

-How do you not have a feeling with people? But have you seen? Whoever says that is because he is a fan. There are three options. Or because he is from Real Madrid. Or because he is a CR7 fan. Or because he has no idea what he’s talking about. The three options are valid, but whoever says that… But, as has been said, not only the three thousand people who were gathered here, who have tried Leo Messi’s cake and that was him who said: “Holy shit, this cake here is big, yes, we are going to try it, but there are three thousand people that Uncle Soria brought and we are going to distribute His Holiness Leo Messi’s cake with the three thousand people who were here and now”. Someone is going to come and tell us that Leo Messi has no skin, that he is not sensitive, that he has no sensitivity with people…

-I know I’m not going to sleep. How am I going to sleep, how am I going to sleep. What I’m looking forward to is the game with Chile, the next one, the quarterfinals, the round of 16, the quarterfinals, the semifinals. And again see the little guy with the beard raising another American Cup and me asking for the ninth Ballon d’Or. Ho, ho, ho…