The purchase of UE Cornellà by Leo Messi, announced this week by the Catalan club, has brought a less visible side of the Argentine footballer’s career into the spotlight. The club said the deal forms part of a new phase focused on youth development, sporting growth, institutional expansion, sustainability and ties with the local community. Messi’s move into club ownership also adds a new asset to a business structure that already included hotels, real estate, a personal brand and an investment vehicle focused on sport and technology.

Beyond his advertising deals, Messi’s business portfolio is built on assets and companies linked to his own wealth. These include the MiM Hotels chain, the real estate company Edificio Rostower, The Messi Brand and Play Time Sports-Tech HoldCo LLC. In several cases, recent public developments show how those businesses have been reshaped, with management changes, corporate moves and uneven results depending on the sector.

Messi’s hotel business and its move with Meliá

The hotel arm began with MiM Hotels, the chain of properties linked to Messi and managed since 2017 by Majestic Hotel Group. Over time, that portfolio has expanded across Sitges, Mallorca, Ibiza, Baqueira, Andorra and Sotogrande. The most recent change came in 2025, when Meliá Hotels International announced it would take over the management of MiM’s hotels and integrate them into The Meliá Collection, its luxury brand.

That step changes how the business now operates. Meliá’s management began on 1 November 2025 and covers six assets, which now operate under the hotel group’s commercial and distribution network. Meliá’s public materials still identify several of these properties as hotels owned by Messi or designed by him, and MiM Sotogrande is already listed within that portfolio.

The real estate arm: a SOCIMI valued at more than 220 million euros

The property side of the business originates in the family vehicle Limecu España 2010, through which Messi structures Edificio Rostower Socimi. The company debuted on the Spanish market at the end of 2024 with a valuation of 223 million euros and an initial share price of 57.40 euros. Reuters reported at the time that the portfolio included seven hotels, three office assets and apartments in Spain, London and Paris, with Messi as chairman of the board and Antonela Roccuzzo as vice-chair.

The latest public reference for its performance comes from Portfolio Stock Exchange, which now places Edificio Rostower at 62.50 euros per share, with a market capitalisation of 243.08 million euros. At the time of its market debut, the company also said it was considering opening up to new investors, meaning the structure is no longer confined to the family perimeter with which it began trading.

Own brand and investment in sports tech

The personal brand arm began as a clothing line and later evolved into a broader commercial platform under The Messi Brand. That side of the business has not followed a straight path. The US company MGO Global, which held the licence for Messi’s non-sportswear apparel, lost 86% of its value in its first year on the stock market. The company had posted sales of 931,840 dollars in the first nine months of 2023 and losses of 1.57 million. Two months later, MGO announced the transfer of the licence to Centric Brands for 2 million dollars in cash.

The next stage of that business came with the global agreement announced by Centric Brands in June 2024 to design, manufacture and distribute products under The Messi Brand in categories including fashion, accessories and home textiles. In parallel, the origin of the more technology-driven investment arm lies in Play Time Sports-Tech HoldCo LLC, created in 2022 in San Francisco as Messi’s main vehicle for exploring opportunities in sport, media and technology, with a broad approach that included both start-ups and potential stakes in teams.