Ester Cunio, 90, mentioned the trans-Andean captain after an invasion of her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7. Thanks to this, she managed to avoid being taken hostage in Gaza.
The war between Hamas and Israel does not end. The territorial conflict and occupation of the Gaza Strip continue to claim lives, in a catastrophe that seems endless. In this context, a curious story occurred which, for some, involves the best footballer in history: Lionel Messi .
On October 7, Ester Cunio was approached by the terrorist group . The 90-year-old woman was at her home in Israeli Kibbutz Nir Oz, with her eight family members.
Two of the members of the organization knocked on the door and entered the premises armed, asking about the rest of the people. However, Due to the language barrier, the woman managed to escape, in a scene that will be captured in the October 7 documentary Voices, which seeks to tell survival stories of Israeli Latinos.
Where is your family?, the terrorist asks, to which Cunio replies: “I don’t have any family, it’s just me, don’t you see? “Go see the house.” “You come with me, there will be no one here, it will be all fire,” the kidnapper insisted. “Don’t talk to me because I don’t know your language, Arabic. And Hebrew is bad. “I speak in Argentinian, in Spanish,” the woman replied.
“What is Argentina?, asks the Hamas member, incredulously. “Do you watch football?” Cunio replied. “Football, I like it,” was the response. There was the sentence that changed everything: “I come from where he is”. Messi “. “Messi?!” “I love Messi,” said the terrorist.
According to Cunio, the man completely changed his attitude: “He grabbed my arm, gave me the revolver and the rifle, put his hand on me and they took a photo of us. Then they left.
Cunio’s message
The woman also took it upon herself to send a heartfelt message to the Argentine star: “Now I hope that if he (Lionel Messi) knows that I mentioned him and that thanks to him I was saved, I would ask him for my two grandchildren who are locked up there. I would say please pray to God to try to get them out because they are worth gold. One David and another Ariel “, he stressed.
The day before the October 7 attack, the Cunios, who have lived in Israel since the 1980s, had a family dinner. However, of the 20 members who attended the meeting, only 12 remained the next day. Ester is the grandmother of Lucas, Eitan and twins Ariel and David. The latter two have been kidnapped in Gaza for five months, in addition to Arbel (Ariel’s girlfriend) and her brother Dolev.
David was kidnapped with his wife Sharon and their twin daughters, Emma and Yuli. However, the woman and girls were released last November, in the only exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners that took place.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
