Argentinian football great Lionel Messi is reportedly set to launch his own customised bicycle next year as he gets set to put investment into the cycling industry.
Messi, who is widely considered to be one of the best male footballers of all time, is said to be a big fan of cycling as a sport and hobby, and has often been pictured on bike rides in Miami with his son. The 37-year-old is currently based in the Florida city as he plays for American team Inter Miami after a career which saw him play for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.
There is no fixed release date as things stand, but according to Spanish outlet Relovo, Messi and his team will put the new bike onto the market in the coming months after working in tandem with a well-known world class cyclist on the new custom model. The bike will reportedly be worth between €10,000-15,000 (£8-12k approx), putting it in the upper reaches of premium bikes.
Back in 2015 Messi’s love for cycling first became apparent. In 2015 Sir Dave Brailsford travelled to Barcelona with Fausto Pinarello in order to present the footballer with his own Team Sky edition Pinarello Dogma F8 and a team jersey printed with his name, shirt number and national flag.
Messi is far from being the only world class footballer to be seen with pro cycling kit over the years. Earlier this year former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Belgium winger Eden Hazard got on two wheels dressed in Intermarché-Wanty gear and rode up Mont Ventoux.
Elsewhere plenty of other elite sportsmen share Messi and Hazard’s love for cycling. F1 drivers Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas have both got stuck into various two-wheeled exploits. Sainz is reported to be friends with Tadej Pogačar and joined the Slovenian for a recovery ride near Monaco in October, not long after Pogačar had won the World Championships road race in Switzerland.
Meanwhile Bottas has long been an advocate for gravel riding, even going so far as to enter the UCI Gravel World Championships this year in which he finished 133rd. The Finnish racing driver, whose partner is Australian pro cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, even created his own gravel race last year.
