Singer Ed Sheeran found out too late that Messi doesn’t speak English, “I chatted with him for about 3 minutes”
Sheeran shared a memorable story about meeting Messi after the Inter Miami star attended his South Florida concert.
It’s well documented that pop superstar Ed Sheeran is a soccer fan, specifically of local team Ipswich Town, in which he owns a minority stake. Following Ipswich’s recent promotion to the Premier League, the 35-year-old was invited into the dressing room for a sing-along with the players.
As would be the case for any soccer fan, Sheeran was excited by the opportunity to meet Lionel Messi, which he was able to do in October 2023. The Argentina captain attended the English singer’s concert in Hollywood, Florida, near Miami, with his family, and the two met afterward.
A photo of the Messi family with Sheeran, posted on Instagram by the Inter Miami star, has amassed more than 16.2 million likes.
Ed Sheeran’s awkward Messi realization
It was all smiles between two of the biggest names on the planet, yet Sheeran revealed in an appearance on the “And The Writer Is” podcast that communication was not exactly smooth. Not that he realized it at first.
“I chatted with him for about three minutes,” Sheeran recalled. “Then a representative came up to me and whispered, ‘He doesn’t speak English.’”
Another snap that has appeared online shows Sheeran enthusiastically explaining something to the former Barcelona playmaker, who can be seen smiling away. Whether he understood much of what the musician was telling him is doubtful, although it has been reported that Messi has been studying English since moving to Miami in July 2023, so perhaps he was doing more than just being polite and nodding along.
Messi to Ipswich? Probably not
In any case, it seems Sheeran was not able to coerce Messi into signing for Ipswich without him realizing.
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