In February 2026, Lionel Messi (the Argentinian soccer player who is considered one of the best of all times) did an interview with the podcast “Miró de Atrás” in which he revealed something about his private life. Specifically, he was asked about his studies and whether he had finished high school, to which, after answering yes, he made the following revelation: “In my last year in Argentina, since I knew I was leaving, I didn’t study anything.” The journalists laughed at this statement with a certain complicity, since he did not need studies to earn money by being a great soccer player. However, becoming serious, Messi reflected on the importance of studies and surprised them by confessing that if he had the chance, he would not do that again.
“I regret many things; I tell my children: Having a good education, studying, and being prepared… Not learning English when I was little… I had time to do it and I didn’t, I regret it a lot,” Messi emphasized, even admitting that “I have had incredible opportunities to talk with important people, to have a conversation, and I feel like an ignorant person. I think, what an idiot, how I wasted my time.”
Why did he waste his time? Why didn’t he study? Very simple: because studying implies effort, and when one does not see that that effort is worth it, one does not make the effort. Deep down, this happens not only with studying but with all things that involve effort, and when time passes and one looks back, one regrets it, like Messi did. Regretting it later is much easier than making the effort in the moment. However, we gain nothing by regretting, and we gain a lot by making the effort.
We must make the effort that important things, such as study, imply, and not let ourselves be carried away by that laziness we inherited with original sin which makes us avoid what is difficult.
Precisely to combat this tendency within us, we have to practice the virtues. Specifically related to study is the virtue of studiousness, which we must cultivate if we do not want to regret in the future having wasted our time. In order to be able to fulfill our Christian mission of being a light for the world, it is necessary to think well and also to possess the truth, for which the virtues are necessary so that our judgment does not become deformed. In particular, the virtue of studiousness, leads us to the possession of the truth.
