The Culture Joint

Messi handkerchief becomes evidence in pension lawsuit against former NBA star

Lionel Messi

In 2021, Luana Sandien was on the cover of Playboy Africa wearing the Barcelona shirt “I’ve always been a fan of Barcelona, wearing the team’s shirt on a magazine cover has always been a dream”, quickly after the release of the photos Luana gained support of the team’s fans.

In the same year, Messi would make his last game with the shirt of Barcelona, the club where he played for about 20 years. In an internet auction, the handkerchief used by the player in his farewell, was for sale and won the news, that’s when Luana decided to bid about R$ 3.2 million for the tissue.

“I bid for the scarf, but it’s of course, I wouldn’t have all that amount to pay”, commented Luana.

The Brazilian was once married to a former NBA player, the two are in a legal dispute over child custody. And after seeing the news about the handkerchief, the player went after the court to claim that Luana would not need the pension money and used his bid for Messi’s scarf as proof in court.

Model Luana Sandien has made a bid for the handkerchief Lionel Messi used (Instagram/@luanasandien)

“He simply mentioned the news to justify that I have a lot of money. I felt impotence, anger, and sadness, because even if it were true, his standard of living is much higher than mine, and he knows very well that this story is not true”, commented Luana.

She also claims that the relationship has always been troubled, and on some occasions, even aggression has been recorded, “Since I was pregnant, we always fought, he is a bipolar, jealous, sexist person, he even often fought because I didn’t had food ready when he was hungry. I lived in hell, and I was blind”, and Luana adds “He threw my things in the street, broke my phones, spit in my face, broke the doors of the house, even slapped me in the face. Sometimes I locked myself in my son’s room out of fear.”

But this story is still far from over, the whole legal process is taking place in Spain, where she has lived for a few years, and the model is not seen with good eyes, “I am discouraged with the process, even though I tell them all of this stories, they still refuse to see the big picture, and the judge is a big fan of basketball.

“Every time we have an audience, the only thing that happens is that they lower the amount he should pay”.

The Culture Joint