There are two tournaments running in parallel in this 2026 World Cup. The first one is seen by everyone: Argentina advancing match by match with Lionel Messi as the undisputed engine. The second happens off the field, on screens, billboards, and commercials, and very few people analyze it with the attention it deserves.
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On the field, the numbers are historic in the most literal sense. With 8 goals in the tournament, Messi leads the World Cup top scorers chart and has already accumulated 21 goals in his entire World Cup history, becoming the all-time top scorer of the World Cup, surpassing the record that Miroslav Klose had held for more than a decade. At 39 years old, in his sixth World Cup, Messi is not only still the best — he is being the most decisive.
But there is another dimension of this World Cup that, as a sports marketing specialist, I find equally revealing.
During my week in Miami, in the heart of the tournament, something caught my attention beyond football: the commercial omnipresence of Messi. His image appeared in campaigns for Duracell, Lowe’s, Stanley, adidas, LEGO, Michelob Ultra, Lay’s, Hard Rock, Mastercard, Beats, and ChatGPT. Eleven brands. Eleven different categories. And according to data from the measurement platform System1, Messi appears in 22% of all major campaigns of the tournament — that is, one out of every five major World Cup spots features his image.
The remarkable thing is not the quantity. It is the diversity.
A traditional athlete anchors his commercial value in predictable categories: sportswear, energy drinks, equipment. Messi is in batteries, home improvements, artificial intelligence. That is not conventional sponsorship — it is what happens when an athlete stops being an ambassador and becomes a cultural symbol. Brands no longer hire him to recommend a product. They hire him to transfer what he represents: excellence, consistency, identity.
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That transition has a logic that we know well in sports marketing. The value of an athlete does not end with their sports performance — often, another stage begins. But what makes Messi’s case unusual is that both stages are happening at the same time. At 39 years old, he continues breaking historic records on the field and his commercial value is greater than ever off it.
For Peruvian brands that still see sports marketing as a risky bet or a visibility expense, the Messi case in this World Cup offers a concrete lesson: sport builds value platforms that no other medium can replicate. It is not about appearing next to an athlete. It is about understanding what that athlete represents to the consumer, and designing a relationship that makes sense for both.
Messi knows it. The brands that work with him do too. The rest of the industry is still learning.
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