Argentinian sports presenter Sofi Martinez has emphatically shut down rumours of an affair with Lionel Messi, slamming the speculation as “ridiculous”.
Martinez has shot to fame in recent years for her success covering the Argentine national team, as well as her work on events such as the Olympics, Formula One and the Champions League for ESPN and Argentina’s TV Publica.
She has interviewed some of the biggest names in Argentinian sport as a result, including Messi. Her emotional interview with the 37-year-old prior to the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner appearing in the World Cup final in 2022 went viral.
Their public interactions leading to unfounded rumours the pair were romantically involved despite the Inter Miami’s seven-year marriage to Antonela Roccuzzo, with whom they share three children.
But Martinez has hit back at the suggestions, opening up on the pain it caused her and her family.
Opening up on the ordeal to PH: Podemos Hablar on Argentinian channel, Telefe, the reporter said: “A lot of the time when your exposure increases, it brings things that aren’t so good and my family suffers a lot.
“This year, people began to talk more and more about, ‘What’s up with the way he looks at you,’ things like this, and I was caught in the middle of something that made me feel ridiculous to have to clarify.”
View this post on Instagram
Martinez also said the rumours are only rife because of her gender, insisting that host of the show Andy Kusnetzoff could look at Messi the same way and no one would notice because he is male.
Neither Messi nor partner Roccuzzo have addressed the rumours, despite past claims that the mother-of-three was jealous of her husband’s working relationship with Martinez.
Martinez, who has previously met Antonela, has said she doesn’t ‘know where it comes from’ in a past interview with Socios del espectáculo.
The presenter has also praised her for how ‘she handles the madness’ surrounding the global soccer superstar.
