Lionel Messi Gets a Species Named After Him — Again

Botanists working in the Peruvian Andes have named a newly discovered wild shrub Salvia messii in Lionel Messi's honor, and the plant's white-and-sky-blue flowers are a living mirror of the Argentina jersey.

A Flower Named Messi

Lionel Messi's farewell to the Argentina national team came at the Monumental on 6 October, when the Albiceleste beat Benin 3-0. Now the tributes are arriving from an unexpected quarter: the Peruvian Andes, where botanists have named a newly discovered wild shrub Salvia messii in his honor.

The plant was identified through a collaboration between Argentine agronomist Rolando Uría and Peruvian botanists Paúl Gonzáles Arce and Jean Capcha Ramos. It grows as a wild shrub up to 1.5 meters tall in the high Andes, and its classification puts the world's most famous footballer into the permanent record of botanical science.

Under the Latin naming rules, the added i turns Messi into messii, meaning "belonging to Messi" — a small linguistic bow from the scientists to the Argentine.

Messi closed his Argentina story with a goal in the 3-0 win over Benin at the Estadio Más Monumental, in front of roughly 85,000 supporters who had come to say goodbye. He wore a special gold-trimmed Argentina kit for the occasion — a 'jersey for a lifetime' — and walked off the international stage with 125 goals in 208 appearances for his country.

Why Scientists Chose Messi

Researchers name new species after public figures to draw attention to their discoveries, and Messi is one of the most recognizable people on the planet. Argentine media outlet La Nación first reported the story, describing the connection between the football legend and the new shrub as both scientific and poetic.

What makes the choice especially fitting is the flower itself. When Salvia messii blooms, its petals combine crisp white with soft sky blue — the exact color pairing of the iconic albiceleste shirt Messi wore while lifting the World Cup and then said goodbye to in front of 85,000 fans at the Monumental. It is as if nature sketched its own tribute jersey in the mountains of Peru.

The genus Salvia — the sages — is one of the largest in the plant kingdom, with close to a thousand species spread across the globe, and new ones are still being described every year from mountain ranges like the Andes. Scientists reserve the highest honorific names for people whose cultural footprint justifies permanence in the scientific record, and few living figures fit that description better than the man from Rosario.

A Rare and Endangered Tribute

Like Messi's career, the plant is rare and worth protecting. Salvia messii exists only in a narrow elevation band between 2,000 and 2,400 meters, and scientists have already assessed it as preliminarily endangered.

The threats it faces are familiar ones across the Andes: habitat loss, the creeping effects of climate change, and forest fires. By naming the species after the most famous living Argentine, the botanists have given conservationists a ready-made story to rally around — a plant that can trade on the fame of its namesake to earn the protection it needs.

Endangered status matters because it focuses conservation effort. A preliminary assessment means scientists have enough evidence to flag the risk even before a full formal evaluation is complete, and for a plant found in only one narrow mountain band, every hectare of habitat counts. Giving the species Messi's name does not change its biology — but it changes how many people notice when that biology is under threat.

The Sixth Species to Bear His Name

According to footballtransfers.com, Salvia messii is the sixth species named after Messi, and the earlier names tell their own story about how far his fame has reached into the natural sciences.

The list already includes a lizard and a fern. Liolaemus messii, described in 2021, is a lizard from Salta province in northern Argentina, with its naming paper praising Messi as an example of humility and chivalry. Polystichum lionelii, published in 2023, is a fern from the same region whose naming paper honored his contributions to society through his work for children.

Few footballers in history can claim a menagerie of namesakes; even fewer can claim that their flowers wear their team's colors.

The naming habit goes beyond football too: animals and plants have been named after musicians, actors and writers for decades, usually because the describing scientists were fans or wanted their discovery to be remembered. Messi joins an unusual club of sporting figures whose surnames now sit inside binomial Latin — the scientific language's own hall of fame.

From the Monumental to the Mountains

The timing adds a layer of sentiment. Messi's international career ended on Argentine soil against Benin, closing a 21-year chapter with Argentina that included a World Cup, two Copas América and a record 125 goals in 208 caps. The Andes shrub, meanwhile, grows in a part of the world where Messi is worshipped — the same continent whose club football at La Masia never quite kept him home, but whose flag he carried to every final.

Peru and Argentina share the Andes, and an Argentine-born agronomist on the discovery team makes the tribute feel like it comes from home. It is a fitting footnote to a career that belonged as much to South America as to Barcelona or Miami: a wildflower, tough enough for thin mountain air, dressed in white and sky blue.

The farewell itself stretched far beyond the ninety minutes. A concert, a drone show and pyrotechnics turned the Monumental into a celebration of the 21-year journey from the 'Mecci' fax saga to the World Cup trophy lift in Qatar. Days earlier, Messi had received the University of Buenos Aires' highest honor — an honorary doctorate — and was handed the captaincy legacy to Romero in an emotional handover.

A Legacy Beyond Football

Messi has collected most of the honors football can offer, but scientific naming is a different kind of immortality. Records fade and highlight reels age; a species name, once published, enters the literature permanently.

For Argentina supporters who filled the Monumental for the Benin farewell, the plant offers one more way to remember what the man meant: endurance at altitude, beauty under pressure, and colors that never leave you. Salvia messii will keep blooming in the Andes long after the last goal of his career — white and sky blue, just like always.

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