Some call it soccer, and some call it football, but one thing’s for sure: whatever you call the game, Lionel Messi is one of the best at playing it. After spending two decades rising through the ranks of his beloved FC Barcelona to become an icon of the sport, Messi left under difficult circumstances in 2021 when the club admitted that, in effect, it could no longer afford to pay him. After a short stint at Paris Saint-Germain, Messi announced he was signing with FC Inter Miami in June 2023, marking the start of a new chapter for the legendary player.

Thanks to his exceptional talents, Messi has become one of the sport’s highest-paid players, with his recent Miami contract taking his career earnings north of $1.6 billion. With so much cash rolling in, he has ample opportunity to buy almost anything he wants, and that includes an enviable collection of rare and luxurious cars. Messi has had all manner of high-end automobiles in his garage over the years, but here are the highlights of his collection.

Ferrari 335 S Scaglietti

The most expensive car thought to be in Messi’s collection is a Ferrari 335 S Scaglietti, which sold for $34.9 million at auction in 2016. The key part here is “thought to be” — although it was widely reported at the time that Messi was the new owner of the illustrious bit of classic racing machinery, it has never been officially confirmed by the man himself. Messi did, however, take the opportunity to joke about the reports, uploading a photo on Instagram with a Lightning McQueen toy car captioned, “my new car,” with laughing emojis.

The Ferrari also hasn’t been seen in public since the auction, although that isn’t unusual for such a rare and valuable car. Even by classic Ferrari standards, the 335 S Scaglietti in question is special: it has been driven by former F1 champions Mike Hawthorne and Sir Stirling Moss and competed at the Mille Miglia, 24 Hours of Le Mans, and 12 Hours of Sebring.

Bentley BentaygaMM.f/Shutterstock

While he has owned plenty of supercars, Messi’s daily drivers are often high-end SUVs, with a Bentley Bentayga being one of his more recent purchases. The Bentayga is his ride of choice for driving to training at Inter Miami FC, the Major League Soccer team that the Argentine now plays for after signing a two-and-a-half-year deal earlier in 2023. The car is, in many ways, exactly what you’d expect from a high-riding SUV wearing the prestigious Bentley badge — supremely luxurious inside, with an impeccable level of detail, but with seemingly endless reserves of power when you put your foot down.

However, SlashGear found the Bentayga does have one trick up its sleeve: its suspension, which does a great job of compensating for the car’s considerable mass, making it more precise and athletic when cornering than many of its SUV competitors. It’s also roomy enough to accommodate Messi’s wife and three 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, unlike the supercars he was more often seen in earlier in his career.

Audi Q8Sev7nmoon/Shutterstock

Messi’s collection has featured plenty of Audis over the years, with his Q8 being another recent addition to his garage. He drove through crowds of fans in one after winning the World Cup in 2022, with the car barely visible through the thousands that had gathered to celebrate his victory. The Argentinian is prone to getting into scrapes with the car – an incident in 2023 saw him careen through a red light while driving his Q8 through Miami.

Luckily, no one was injured, but the video shows the car entering a busy intersection with traffic approaching from the side at high speed. At the time, Messi’s car was being escorted by a police patrol car, but the officers didn’t stop either, following the Q8 straight across the junction and into oncoming cars. Hopefully, the Q8 isn’t involved in any more incidents – it seems the legendary player is still more used to driving in the crowded streets of Barcelona and Paris than the highways of Miami.

Maserati GranTurismo MC StradaleMarukosu/Shutterstock

Combining the plush interior of the GranTurismo S with the race-ready weight reduction of Maserati’s GT4 cars, the GranTurismo MC Stradale is the best of both worlds. It features only two seats, as opposed to the standard car’s four, and boasts a bump in power, too, with 450 horsepower on tap. Messi owned one but later sold it on, with the car appearing at a specialist dealer in 2017. It’s rare to see a Messi-owned car come up for public sale — unlike some other super-rich athletes like Floyd Mayweather, Messi isn’t known for flipping cars.

This beefed-up Maserati is therefore more than a little out of the ordinary, and it seems the selling dealer was well aware of that. It was listed for around $126,000, close to a $30,000 premium over a similar MC Stradale from the same year, but that’s still significantly less than Messi would have paid for it when he bought it in 2012.

Land Rover Range RoverBoJack/Shutterstock

The Range Rover is the car of choice for many wealthy athletes, and Messi is no exception, picking one up in time for the holidays in 2019. He was spotted driving the car while spending time in his home city of Rosario, Argentina, but he’s also been pictured driving a different, Spanish-registered example of the luxury SUV in Barcelona. It’s easy to see why the star is so keen on them: The car’s winning mix of luxury, spaciousness, and refinement has remained unchanged throughout the years and remains evident in the 2022 Range Rover.

Plenty of luxury SUV competitors have emerged in the decades since the Range Rover first came to market, and the Argentinian has driven a fair few of them. However, Messi rarely drives more than one example of any given car, so it’s telling that he’s returned to Range Rover ownership over the years even with such a huge luxury SUV market to choose from.

Audi R8

Audi is evidently one of Messi’s favorite brands, as the star has driven a laundry list of them over his long professional career. Among them was an R8, Audi’s flagship supercar that’s sadly being discontinued after 2024. He bought the car during his career-defining stint at FC Barcelona but has since sold it on. In 2017, the car appeared at an auction in Monaco, where it was crowned the “star of the sale” by auctioneer Barnebys.

The R8 has remained relatively unchanged over the course of its production run, which is a testament to the excellence of the original design. News of its death has been circulating for years now, with rumors that an all-electric successor was in the works for 2022. Evidently, there has been no replacement so far, and the latest reports claim that the earliest a new R8 could appear is 2029. Messi will clearly have to stick to the brand’s expansive range of other cars for the foreseeable future, but given the impressive current Audi lineup, that’s no hardship.

Audi RS6 Avant

The R8 might be on the chopping block, but another Audi formerly in Messi’s collection is going nowhere for now. The RS6 Avant was relaunched in the U.S. for the 2021 model year, so the soccer star should have no trouble sourcing one from his local Audi dealership in Miami. However, he might be a little less keen given how abruptly he had to hand his previous RS6 Avant back to Audi: after the automaker’s long-standing sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona was terminated in 2019, Messi was given just three weeks to hand over the keys to his complimentary super-wagon.

He had picked the car from Audi’s range the previous year, and like all other Barcelona players, had free choice of the brand’s entire lineup. Perhaps it’s not surprising that he picked the RS6 Avant — with a thundering twin-turbo V8 making more than 500 horsepower under the hood, but with room enough to fit five people, it’s the ultimate family hauler for those who can afford it. Or, in Messi’s case, those lucky enough to get one for free.

Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupe

Audi isn’t the only German carmaker to have a place in Messi’s garage. He also owned a Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupe during his second stint at Barcelona, and was pictured driving it to training in 2020. The 603 horsepower, twin-turbo V8-powered super SUV is one of AMG’s most outlandish cars, mixing supercar-worthy performance with coupe styling and SUV spaciousness. It retains the luxury interior of the standard GLE, but the extra power boosts its top speed to 174 mph, while its 0-60 mph time is reduced to just 3.7 seconds.

Its G-Class roots also show through in the form of the Trail and Sand modes, which raise the suspension to its maximum height and adjust the steering for off-road use. Most buyers of the GLE 63 S Coupe will never take it off the asphalt, Messi included, but there’s no harm in having the option there in case he needs to make a hasty escape from a crowd. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened, either.

Audi Q7

Another of Messi’s cars that came courtesy of Audi’s FC Barcelona partnership is his Audi Q7, which he picked up in 2016. It might be less head-turning than some of his other SUVs, but it ticks all the same boxes: it’s luxurious, large enough to fit a family, and surprisingly rapid in top-spec form.

The 2016 Q7 launched the second generation of the SUV, with some notable changes over the first generation. Among them was the new MLB platform, which also underpins everything from the VW Touareg to the Lamborghini Urus. Inside, the Q7 was typical Audi fare — sleek but tech-heavy — but the exterior was revised with a more aggressive look and a larger grille than before. Messi only kept the car for a year before upgrading, and it’s not known whether it was sold off privately or retained by Audi after the Argentinian handed back the keys.

Cadillac Escalade

Although most of Messi’s SUV collection consists exclusively of European models, he has occasionally turned to American automakers to fill the space in his garage. This includes a Cadillac Escalade, which he bought while at Barcelona. Much like his Audi Q8, it seems that Messi wasn’t the most careful driver with the Caddy — he was filmed nearly running over a group of young fans who were looking to get his autograph after a training session.

Like Messi, when SlashGear drove the 2016 Cadillac Escalade Platinum we found its enormous size to take some getting used to on the road, although we avoided any near collisions with Spanish 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren. However, the level of luxury took no getting used to at all, with the $90,000+ SUV being a fitting place for even one of the world’s greatest soccer players to spend their time before a match. Another contender for the “greatest player” title is Messi’s arch-rival Ronaldo, who has an even more outrageous car collection than his South American counterpart.