# Messi and the Israeli PR Machine: The Part Nobody Talks About

There is a strange and largely overlooked story surrounding Lionel Messi:

**For years, Israeli companies, PR agencies, creative agencies and sports-event organizations have repeatedly worked with Messi as a global marketing and image-building vehicle.**

That doesn't immediately prove anyone manipulated his awards or secretly controlled his image.

But when you start putting the connections together, it's hard not to wonder how much influence that machinery had on the **Messi mythology** that eventually became part of the “GOAT” conversation.

And the rabbit hole goes deeper than I expected.

  
1. It starts with Sirin Labs

In 2017, Israeli technology company **Sirin Labs** signed Messi as its global brand ambassador.

Sirin was trying to make blockchain technology mainstream.

And Messi was the vehicle.

Sirin's own marketing described Messi as **“the world's greatest footballer”**, saying his reputation could give the project credibility and mass appeal.

But here's the part that makes this more interesting:

**The PR operation was Israeli too.**

Sirin's media contacts listed **Blonde 2.0**, an Israeli PR agency, with Alona Stein handling the account.

So you have:

**Israeli technology company → Israeli PR agency → Messi → global audience.**

And that wasn't the end of it.

  


# 2. OrCam wasn't just selling a product. It was selling a version of Messi.

In 2020, Jerusalem-based Israeli technology company **OrCam** made Messi its global ambassador.

And this campaign was considerably more than a normal celebrity endorsement.

Israeli creative agency **Peach – Content We Love** explicitly worked on the Messi-OrCam project, recruiting Messi as an ambassador and producing content around him.

OrCam's co-founder described Messi as the **“embodiment of maximizing potential.”** The campaign was built around Messi, his achievements and people overcoming major challenges.

The campaign deliberately reinforced a particular image:

**genius**  
**greatest ever**  
**inspirational**  
**humble**  
**humanitarian**  
**leader**  
**symbol of overcoming adversity**

That's important.

Because PR isn't only about selling a product.

**It's about deciding which version of a person the public sees.**

And in Messi's case, the version being repeatedly reinforced wasn't simply:

>

It was:

>

In other words:

**They weren't just marketing Messi's football. They were marketing Messi's mythology.**



# 3. Then there is Comtec

Israeli event company **Comtec** organized FC Barcelona's 2013 “Peace Tour” in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Messi was there.

The Barcelona squad visited the Western Wall, met Israeli President Shimon Peres and participated in events involving Israeli and Palestinian children. Contemporary AFP/Getty reporting confirms Messi's Western Wall visit and the famous photograph of him placing a note into the wall.



This wasn't simply a private vacation. It was a highly publicized international sporting event explicitly presented as a **“peace tour.”**

Years later, Comtec was again involved in bringing Argentina to Israel for the Argentina–Uruguay match in Tel Aviv.

Another huge event.

Another massive international audience.

Another situation where Messi was at the center of an Israeli-organized sporting spectacle.

# 4. And Israel openly studies this exact type of influence

This is probably the part most people don't know.

There is an actual body of academic research examining **Israel, sports, nation branding, public diplomacy and soft power.**

Research by Yoav Dubinsky specifically examined **Israel's use of sports for nation branding and public diplomacy**, including interviews with Israeli sports organizations and government agencies.

Other academic research has examined **sport-tech diplomacy** — the intersection of Israeli technology, sport, innovation and diplomacy.

So the broader mechanism isn't a conspiracy theory.

**Sports diplomacy is real.**  
**Nation branding is real.**  
**Celebrity marketing is real.**  
**PR is real.**

The interesting question is what happens when all of those things intersect around someone as globally recognizable as Messi.

# 5. Then comes the uncomfortable part: the Ballon d'Or

Here's where it gets interesting.

The Ballon d'Or isn't decided by goals alone.

It's a subjective award based on votes from journalists, with the voting system changing over time.

And some of Messi's victories demonstrate just how much **perception and voting distribution** can matter.

# 2010

Under the journalist-only system, the ranking would have been:

**1. Sneijder**  
**2. Iniesta**  
**3. Xavi**  
**4. Messi**

Messi ultimately won the FIFA Ballon d'Or after the electorate was expanded to include national-team captains and coaches.

I'm not saying this was manipulated.

I'm saying it demonstrates something important:

**Change who gets to judge a player, and the “best player in the world” can change.**

# 2019

This one is even more striking.

**Messi: 686 points**  
**Van Dijk: 679**

Only **7 points** separated them.

And Van Dijk actually received more first-place votes:

**Van Dijk — 69**  
**Messi — 61**

Messi won because he appeared higher across more voters' overall top-five rankings.

Again, completely legitimate.

But it demonstrates how a subjective award can ultimately come down to **how journalists perceive and rank players**, not simply who has the strongest statistical résumé.

# 2021

Messi beat Lewandowski:

**613–580**

Another extremely close and heavily debated vote.

# 2023

Messi received **65 of 92 first-place votes**, with Haaland receiving 21.

Haaland had just come off a record breaking season. 

# 6. This is the part people misunderstand about PR

PR doesn't have to call a journalist and say:

>

That's not how sophisticated image management works.

The more powerful mechanism is shaping the **information environment** from which people form their opinions.

If the world repeatedly sees Messi presented as:

**genius**  
**greatest ever**  
**inspirational**  
**humble**  
**humanitarian**  
**leader**  
**symbol of overcoming adversity**

those associations become part of the public perception of the player.

Then a journalist sits down to vote for the Ballon d'Or.

They're not looking at a blank spreadsheet.

They're evaluating a player whose reputation has been constructed over decades by clubs, sponsors, broadcasters, advertisers, PR companies, media organizations and event producers.

And Israeli organizations were repeatedly part of that ecosystem.

# So how much did it matter?

**We don't know.**

And anyone claiming they can prove Israeli PR *caused* Messi to win a Ballon d'Or is going beyond the evidence.

But the other extreme is also wrong.

The evidence shows:

**Israeli technology companies worked with Messi.**

**Israeli PR agencies handled Messi-related campaigns.**

**Israeli creative agencies built Messi campaigns.**

**Israeli event companies repeatedly organized major events involving Messi.**

**Israeli sports-diplomacy research explicitly examines using athletes, sport and technology for nation branding and public diplomacy.**

And this happened repeatedly over many years.

Individually, you can explain every connection away as ordinary business.

But put them together and you get something much more interesting:

**a sophisticated Israeli-linked marketing, creative and sports-diplomacy ecosystem repeatedly intersecting with the public image of one of the most famous athletes on Earth.**

The evidence doesn't prove that this machinery created Messi's greatness.

It doesn't prove Ballon d'Or votes were manipulated.

But it does prove that **the machinery existed.**

And once you realize that, the question changes.

It's no longer:

>

It's:

>

And *that* is a much harder question to answer.