Overview
- Multiple outlets published Italian researcher Fiorenzo Santini’s findings on July 25, 2026, reporting that one of Messi’s maternal great‑grandparents was born in Ribeirão Preto in São Paulo state.
- Santini’s multi‑year research, based on passenger manifests and local records, says the family arrived at Santos on the ship Washington on 20 September 1899 and moved from São Paulo to Rosario, Argentina, around 1905.
- The study documents name shifts during migration — for example Ranieri Cocchietini recorded as Ramiero Concchietini in Brazil and later variants such as Cuccittini — which researchers attribute to transcription and registration errors.
- No contemporary records link living relatives to Ribeirão Preto and there has been no formal change to Messi’s nationality or any official request for him to represent Brazil; he remains publicly tied to Argentina and focused on club duties.
- The discovery adds historical context to Messi’s international options — he was already known to have been eligible for Italy and courted by Spain — and illustrates how ancestry, when proven by documents, can create retrospective national‑team eligibility but does not automatically alter modern citizenship.