With football icon Pele recently passing on, his daughter has now revealed her father's wish for Lionel Messi at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The legendary Brazilian sadly witnessed the majority of the 2022 FIFA World Cup from a hospital bed before he was announced dead on 29 December, shortly after the tournament's conclusion.
The 82-year-old initially backed his native country to go all the way, but the Selecao were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Croatia.
His daughter, Kely Nascimento, has now admitted that once his beloved Brazil had crashed out, the three-time World Cup winner got behind his nation's bitter rivals Argentina.
On Instagram, she posted a picture of herself and Messi's wife Antonela Roccuzzo, along with a caption revealing her father's support for the Paris Saint-Germain star at the showpiece in the Middle East.
"Story time: This is the very pretty and kind Antonela Roccuzzo, Messi's wife," she wrote.
"I didn't have the opportunity to meet Messi, so when I met her in the magical place of every party (the women's restroom), I passed on a message to him through her.
"When Brazil lost to Croatia, my dad was already getting worse. Everyone wanted Brazil to win the World Cup for my dad, no one more than the Selecao!
"But my dad knew better than most what soccer is like. And it was the possibility of any team being able to win that he would always say was what he loved about the beautiful game.
"After Brazil's exit, everyone that came into his hospital room (all day, every day until the final!!!) would ask him: 'And now Pele? Now who do you want to win? Surely not Argentina!'
"And he would say, 'Yes Argentina! The trophy has to come back to South America and Messi has to win'.
"Everyone would feign (and sometimes not even feign) horror! 'What?! Argentina?!'
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“And he simply would say, "Yes, Messi wins."'
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