An environmental group called Futuro Vegetal broke into and vandalised football superstar Lionel Messi’s £9 million mansion in Ibiza, Spain.
Messi’s villa in Ibiza was severely damaged by the Futuro Vegetal group. (Photo: X)
Accordingly, Argentine superstar Lionel Messi owns many properties around the world. One of them is a villa worth 8.45 million pounds in Florida, USA, which he bought in September last year after joining Inter Miami. However, while Messi is living and playing in the US, many other properties of the Argentine striker, including the villa in Ibiza, are vacant.
Environmental activist group Futuro Vegetal took advantage of the vacancy to break into the Ibiza villa. The group claimed that Messi’s villa was an “illegal construction” and vandalized it by spray-painting it all over. Two members of the group even posed for pictures with a banner that read “help the planet, eat the rich, abolish the police.”
On social network X, Futuro Vegetal explained the reason for the raid on Messi’s villa: “We dyed Messi’s illegal villa in Ibiza. The villa is an illegal construction that the footballer bought for a whopping €11m (£9m). Meanwhile, in the Balearic Islands, during the heatwave alone, between 2 and 4 people died as a direct result.”
The group also stressed that: “The richest 1% of the population is responsible for the same carbon emissions as the poorest two-thirds of the population. This is only possible because public authorities support a socio-economic system that threatens human life.”
Lionel Messi bought a villa in Ibiza in 2022 and often vacations there with his wife and three children. Currently, the captain of Argentina has not responded to this incident.
The actions of the Futuro Vegetal group have caused much controversy. While some people support environmental protection, many others believe that the destruction of private property is unacceptable.