Messi’s son Thiago and Suarez’s son in the U-13 Inter Miami shirt.

Messi’s son , Thiago Messi, the eldest son, has officially put on the shirt to play in his home country of Argentina.

Thiago Messi, 12 years old, Messi’s eldest son, played for Inter Miami for the first time in the “Newell’s Cup” tournament in his hometown of Rosario, Argentina, where his legendary father was born and raised playing football.

Messi’s son – Thiago Messi (left) and Benjamin Suarez, son of Luis Suarez. Photo: InterMiami.

Rosario is 300km northwest of the capital Buenos Aires. Messi’s son, Thiago Messi, wears the number 10 shirt, which is also the number Thiago wore for the Inter Miami youth team. In the “Newell’s Cup” tournament, the participating teams were U-13, in the opening match, Messi’s son’s Newell Old Boys team lost 0-1 to their opponent.

Rosario is where Messi was born, raised and played football for a while for Newell’ Old Boys before moving to Barcelona’s La Masia academy, joining the same age as his son now.

During the match, Messi’s son’s mother, Antonela Roccuzzo, and several family members watched Thiago play, including Thiago’s grandparents, Jorge Messi and Celia Cuccitini. Messi’s father was not present to watch his son play.

What is special is that in this match in the second half, Messi’s son was substituted and the one who replaced him was Luis Suarez’s son, Benjamin Suarez. This young duo has also been close friends since the time when the two legendary fathers played at Barcelona and now both boys are also young teammates at Inter Miami.

Messi’s son, Thiago…doesn’t look as “good” as his father did when he was 12. Photo: Inter Miami.

Both Messi and Suarez are currently in Rosario as Inter Miami failed to qualify for the MLS Play-offs after losing 2-3 to Antala Utd.

Next Sunday, Messi and Suarez will watch the U-13 Inter Miami match against U-13 Union in the same “Newell’s Cup”. This youth tournament brings together eight U-13 teams from North and South America.

The history of the sons of legends has never been successful because it is difficult to escape the huge shadow of their fathers. Pele’s son, Maradona’s son (who played for Italy U-20), Johan Cruyff’s son… all faded because they were under great pressure when they were on the field, always receiving negative whistles and being compared to their fathers, which made them frustrated.

Can the sons of two South American legends Thiago Messi and Benjamin Suarez escape the huge shadows of their two fathers?