Messi, muchas gracias por todo. Ever since I laid my eyes on you on July 9, 2014, during the 2014 World Cup match against the Netherlands, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I never really came from a football family, but I fell in love with the way you moved with the ball, so elegantly, so effortlessly, and so out of this world. At the time, I happened to be vacationing in the Dominican Republic, and I remember hearing the Argentine supporters singing and chanting. There was something about that atmosphere that captivated me. Instantly, I fell in love with football, and I decided I would follow you throughout your career. After the World Cup ended, I started supporting Barcelona. And just three years later, I got to see you play in person during the 2017 El Clásico friendly against Real Madrid here in Miami. I still remember what it felt like to see you standing on that pitch in front of me, the player I had spent years watching on a screen was suddenly right there. Since that day in 2014, so much has happened. I watched you experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I watched you win everything there was to win, and I watched you endure moments when it seemed like the one thing you wanted most was always just out of reach. But you never stopped. And then came 2022. I don’t think I will ever be able to properly put into words what it felt like watching you lift the World Cup. After everything you had experienced with Argentina, seeing you finally become a world champion felt incredibly personal, even for those of us watching from thousands of miles away. You gave me memories I will carry for the rest of my life. You made me fall in love with football. You introduced me to Barcelona, to Argentina, to the beauty of this sport, and to a culture and community I may have never discovered otherwise.