After a career spent producing moments that millions of football fans will remember for the rest of their lives, Lionel Messi is preparing to spend a little more time away from the pitch – and out at sea.
The Argentine football legend has ordered a Sunreef Ultima 88 luxury power catamaran, according to Yacht Style, joining a growing list of sporting stars who have chosen yachts from the Polish-founded builder.
The yacht is currently under construction at Sunreef Yachts’ shipyard in the United Arab Emirates and will eventually join Messi’s MIM Ocean fleet in the Balearic Islands.
The order comes as Messi, now 39, enters a very different stage of a remarkable career.
He recently retired from international football after scoring 126 goals in 208 appearances for Argentina, bringing down the curtain on a national-team career crowned by victory at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
For a generation of football supporters, it marked the beginning of the end of an extraordinary era.
Messi left Argentina for Spain at just 13 years old to join Barcelona’s youth academy and eventually became the defining player of one of the greatest teams in football history.
He scored 474 goals in 520 first-team appearances for Barcelona between 2004 and 2021, winning 10 La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles.
After leaving Barcelona, Messi spent two seasons with Paris Saint-Germain, winning the French league twice, before moving to the United States to join Inter Miami in 2023. He scored the 900th goal of his professional career this year.
A new life on the water
The Ultima 88 suggests that the sea will form at least part of Messi’s life beyond football.
Messi has ordered the yacht for MIM Ocean, a Balearic Islands-based venture combining his experience with the MiM hotel business in Spain and Andorra with that of Med Cat Yachts, a specialist catamaran sales and charter company.
Messi says: “It’s a real pleasure to join the Sunreef family. My family and I have always loved spending time at sea whenever we get the chance.
“Sunreef Yachts have the style and features I really like, and they’re a perfect fit for what I’m looking for. I’m really looking forward to experiencing the Ultima 88 and enjoying it with my family.”
The Ultima 88 is an 88 ft luxury power catamaran designed to combine the space and stability associated with multihulls with styling more reminiscent of a high-performance motor yacht.
Among its most distinctive features is a full-beam master suite at the front of the yacht.
It also incorporates Sunreef’s Ocean Lounge, a large beach-club area at the stern with drop-down sides that substantially expands the usable space close to the water.
A dedicated garage provides storage for a jet ski, while the yacht also offers extensive outdoor lounging areas and a flybridge.
The Ultima 88 model is powered by twin 1,000 hp engines, although Sunreef has not disclosed detailed performance specifications for Messi’s yacht.
Messi joins a sporting fleet
Messi is far from the first sporting superstar to develop a taste for Sunreef yachts.
Retired tennis great Rafael Nadal received an 80 Sunreef Power in 2020, while two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso took delivery of a 60 Sunreef Power in 2023.
Earlier this year, Carlos Alcaraz ordered his own Ultima 88, making the Spanish tennis star and Messi owners of the same model.
Another former Barcelona striker, Robert Lewandowski, has ordered an 80 Sunreef Power Next. The Polish footballer now plays in Major League Soccer for Chicago Fire.
The collection of sporting names is becoming a significant part of Sunreef’s profile as the company expands production beyond its Polish operations.
Sunreef was founded in Gdansk by Francis Lapp in 2002 and has since expanded into the UAE, where the Ultima range is produced. Its Ras Al Khaimah facility began operating in 2023, with the Ultima 88 becoming one of the flagship products from the site. The first Ultima 88 was launched earlier this year.
Lapp says Messi’s arrival as a customer has significance beyond adding another famous name to the company’s list of owners.
He says: “Leo Messi embodies an extraordinary level of excellence, but what makes this new chapter particularly meaningful to us is what happens beyond the spotlight.
“At Sunreef Yachts, we believe that true luxury is the freedom to choose how you spend your time, with the people who matter most. The sea gives us that freedom in its purest form. We are incredibly proud to welcome Leo Messi and his family to the House of Sunreef.”
For Messi, the Ultima 88 will inevitably be another symbol of the extraordinary wealth generated by an extraordinary football career.
But there is something fitting about the timing.
For more than two decades, Messi’s life has been governed by fixtures, training sessions, international tournaments and the relentless expectations placed on perhaps the most celebrated footballer of his generation.
There will still be football. But there will also, apparently, be more days when there is nowhere in particular he needs to be.
And an 88 ft yacht in the Mediterranean is not a bad place from which to contemplate that change.
Messi still has plenty of football left
Messi may have retired from international football, but his club career is far from over.
He has signed a contract extension with Inter Miami that keeps him at the Major League Soccer club through the end of the 2028 season. If he completes the contract, Messi will be 41 by the time it expires.
And he is not merely hanging around as a ceremonial superstar. Messi is still playing at an extraordinary level.
MLS recently reported that he became the first player in league history to record 30 or more goal contributions in three different seasons, and he is in contention for a third consecutive MLS MVP award.
As for when he will finally retire from club football, Messi has not announced a date. The end of 2028 is an obvious possibility because that is when his current Inter Miami contract expires, but he has consistently indicated that the decision will depend more on how he feels than on his age.
For now, then, football fans who thought his retirement from Argentina meant the end was imminent can relax a little. There could still be another two years of Messi to enjoy.
Source: Yacht Style, with additional information from Sunreef Yachts.
