How The World's Most Private Superstar Spurs The Public Imagination

Lionel Messi only seems like the least interesting man in the world. Listen closely and his silence speaks louder than most athletes’ shouts.

- Sam Borden

It is easy to find the most private superstar in the world.

Seriously, it is. You just put Hogar de Messi— hogar is Spanish for “home”—into Google Maps, and up pops an address in Castelldefels, a gorgeous, windswept village carved into a mountain on the outskirts of Barcelona. Occasionally, the listing disappears for a spell (such is the internet), but it always returns, and there are even “reviews” of Lionel Messi’s place available from other Google users to help prepare you for your visit: One offers a five-star rating and the helpful description Aqu’ vive Dios. God lives here.

Now, if it seems unusual that walking up to the house of a five-time Ballon d’Or winner is about as easy as finding a diner, that’s because it is. Plenty of global icons awash in fame live in elaborate compounds built on swanky islands (Tiger Woods) or in villas constructed on privately owned roads with U.N.-level security gates (Cristiano Ronaldo). Messi’s home, though, is on a regular street.

The avenue has withered trees, a crumbling sidewalk or two and a Continental feel. There are uneven curbs and cars parked at unusual angles. Occasionally, the postman mixes up whose mail goes in which box and one of Messi’s neighbors accidentally gets an electric bill that runs about $1,200 per month.

Standing at the house, even behind the typical European fence, you can crane your neck to see the miniature soccer field Messi installed, complete with floodlights, for his kids. You can see the balcony looking over the Mediterranean. You can see the light smoke wafting from the tapered chimney.