The Argentine legend concluded his whirlwind India tour with a stop at Anant Ambani’s wildlife sanctuary in Jamnagar, where he participated in Hindu rituals and met a lion cub named in his honour.
Lionel Messi traded the football pitch for the wild on Tuesday (16 December) when he visited Vantara, the sprawling animal rescue and rehabilitation center in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Hosted by Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, the Inter Miami star, along with teammates Luis Suárez and Rodrigo De Paul, participated in traditional Indian ceremonies and engaged in a viral “football match” with a rescued elephant calf.
The visit, which wrapped up Messi’s “GOAT India Tour 2025,” mixed high-tech conservation with ancient traditions. When they arrived, the football icons were greeted with folk music and floral garlands. Messi was seen participating in a Maha Aarti and performing Shiva Abhishek at a temple inside the complex, sporting a traditional red tilak on his forehead.
The highlight happened at the Elephant Care Centre, where Messi met Maniklal, a calf rescued from the logging industry. In a heartwarming video that’s since gone viral, Messi passes a football to the calf, who skillfully nudges it back with its foot and trunk, drawing cheers from the Ambani family and staff.
During the tour, the group checked out several key facilities:
- Big Cat Care Centre: Messi watched lions and tigers in naturalistic habitats. In a special gesture, Anant and Radhika named a rescued lion cub “Lionel” to mark the visit.
- Wildlife Hospital: The players saw real-time clinical procedures at the multi-specialty facility.
- Feeding Sessions: Messi personally fed giraffes, rhinos, okapis, and elephants.
Adding to the high-profile nature of the visit, Anant Ambani reportedly gave Messi a rare Richard Mille watch valued at over ₹9 crore ($1.2 million) as a parting gift.
“What Vantara does is truly beautiful the work for animals, the care they receive, the way they are rescued and looked after. It is genuinely impressive,” Messi said in Spanish, thanking the Ambani family for the experience.
“The name [Lionel] now represents hope and continuity, given in honour of the football legend,” a Vantara spokesperson said after the lion cub was named.
Vantara, a 3,000-acre initiative by the Reliance Foundation, has increasingly become a stop for global celebrities wanting to highlight wildlife conservation. For Messi, the visit provided a peaceful ending to a tour that saw massive, sometimes chaotic crowds in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi. The visit also highlighted the growing soft power of Indian conservation efforts on the world stage.
After the visit, Messi and his teammates left from Jamnagar airport to head home. While his tour was strictly promotional, the Argentine legend hinted at a future return, saying, “We will definitely return, hopefully one day to play a match or on another occasion.”
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