While his place among the all-time elite is already beyond doubt, Lionel Messi took a further step into immortality this week with boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys naming a stand in honor of their eight-time Ballon d’Or winning alumnus.
The Rosario-based club made their grand announcement on June 24, the day that Messi celebrated his 38th birthday. A section of their stadium will be forever emblazoned with yet another of the most famous names in Argentina‘s football history.
Almost every corner of the stadium known as El Coloso (“The Colossus”) is festooned with tributes to club legends. It was renamed Estadio Marcelo Bielsa in 2009 to herald the achievements of one of the infamously unorthodox coach who masterminded Newell’s Primera División title triumph in 1991.
Former Newell’s player and coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who has the western concourse of the stadium named after him. There is also a stand named after former Atlético Madrid and Liverpool midfielder Maxi Rodríguez, who was granted the honor to coincide with his 40th birthday in 2021 after he spent a total of nine years at Newell’s across three spells.
Messi is once again rubbing shoulders with the late, great Diego Maradona, whose single (and fairly unremarkable) season at Newell’s during the early 1990s was enough to have the south stand named after him.
For the record, Messi’s longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo will, for now, have to make do with merely having his name above the door at Sporting CP‘s training ground and C.D. Nacional‘s academy.
To mark Messi claiming his first stadium-based honor to add to his sprawling collection of career accolades and awards, here’s a timely look at a selection of other luminaries in the sport who have been granted similar prestige.
Diego Maradona
As well as a stadium at Newell’s Old Boys, Maradona has also seen not one, but two arenas renamed in his honor. The first was the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona, home of Argentinos Juniors, the club with whom the teenaged Maradona made his professional debut in 1976. Not that he needed any help, but the iconic No. 10 was then immortalized all over again when Napoli renamed their Stadio San Paolo in his honor following his death in 2020.
Pelé
Brazil‘s own footballing royalty, Pelé can also claim to have had a stadium named in his honor in the relatively humble guise of the Estádio Rei Pelé (King Pelé Stadium). The ground is located in the state of Maceio and provides a home base for two local lower-league teams: Clube de Regatas Brasil of Serie B and Centro Sportivo Alagoano of Serie C.
Ferenc Puskás
As well as lending his name to FIFA’s annual award for the most beautiful goal scored anywhere in the world in any given year, Hungary and Real Madrid legend Ferenc Puskás also has the 67,000-seater arena in Budapest bearing his moniker. The stadium was completed in 2019 after being rebuilt on the site of the former home of the national team.
Johan Cruyff
Formerly known as the Amsterdam Arena, Ajax made the long overdue decision to rename their stadium in honor of the club’s greatest-ever player, and the coach who arguably did more than any other to define what we now know as the modern game. As such, the stadium was rechristened as the Johan Cruyff Arena ahead of the 2018-19 season, two years after Cruyff’s death.
Arsène Wenger
While Arsenal continue to plug away with prosaic stand names such as the North Bank, East Stand, Clock End, and West Stand at the Emirates, it took a tiny regional team in France to name a stadium after the Gunners’ legendary manager. USL Duppigheim decided to honor Wenger, who grew up nearby and coached Arsenal’s “Invincibles,” by putting his name to their new 500-capacity home stadium, which was built on a former potato field and opened in 2016.
Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton
There may be plans in the works to build a new home for Manchester United, but while Old Trafford still stands, a solid 50% of the stadium is named after two of the club’s most important figures. The North Stand was renamed the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand in 2011 to coincide with Fergie’s 25th year in charge of United (as well as a statue to the long-reigning manager being erected on the concourse outside). The grand unveiling of the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand (formerly the South Stand) followed in 2016 on the 60th anniversary of Charlton’s professional debut for the club.
Sir Kenny Dalglish
Four decades after he first became a Liverpool player, Kenny Dalglish saw his immeasurable contribution to the club commemorated in 2017 with the unveiling of a stand bearing his name at Anfield. The silky Scottish forward made over 500 appearances for the Reds, scored 172 goals, won six titles and three European Cups, and then returned to win three further First Division titles as manager, among a raft of other cups, honors and inspiring charitable work. It’s no wonder they call him The King.
Didier Drogba
Having played youth football for French amateur side Levallois as a 15-year-old, Drogba was understandably flattered when his former club decided to name their stadium after him in 2010. The ex-Chelsea forward spent four formative years with Levallois before moving to league side Le Mans, for whom he made his professional debut in 1998. A move to Marseille followed before he was brought to Stamford Bridge, where the Ivory Coast international won four Premier League titles and the Champions League.
Fernando Torres
Born and raised in the Madrid suburbs, Torres made waves in the youth ranks at Atlético Madrid as a prodigious youth prospect where he earned the El Niño nickname that stuck with him his entire career. To mark the hometown hero’s ascent to greatness, local side CF Fuenlabrada renamed their multi-purpose stadium after Torres in 2011 and to cap things off the World Cup and double Euros-winning Spain striker’s parents were invited as guests of honor to the inaugural game — a friendly against Atlético.
Dwight Yorke
When Trinidad & Tobago needed a new stadium for the 2001 FIFA U-17 World Championship, they decided to build themselves one just outside the Tobagonian capital of Scarborough. Who better to name it after than the Caribbean nation’s most famous and successful footballing export? The Dwight Yorke Stadium, which honors the striker who was still playing for Manchester United at the time, is still in use today and provides a home for the local amateur team.
