Leo Messi has been named the recipient of the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, the Princess of Asturias Foundation has announced. Messi appears among the Foundation’s listed 2026 laureates, placing his name alongside winners recognised across the arts, science, literature, international cooperation and other fields.
The award is one of the 2026 distinctions presented by the Princess of Asturias Foundation, a non-profit private institution that says its central purpose is to promote scientific, cultural and humanistic values that form part of humanity’s universal heritage. Messi’s selection gives sport a place in that wider annual group of honourees.
For the sports world, the announcement is significant because the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports is included in a programme that recognises achievement and contribution across a broad range of disciplines. The Foundation’s published 2026 list identifies Messi specifically as the laureate in the sports category.
Messi included in the Foundation’s 2026 laureate list
The Foundation’s 2026 awards list includes Patti Smith for the Arts, Studio Ghibli for Communication and Humanities, and David Klenerman, Shankar Balasubramanian and Pascal Mayer for Technical and Scientific Research. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is listed for International Cooperation, while Timothy Garton Ash is named for Social Sciences.
Julian Barnes is the 2026 recipient for Literature, and Christina Koch is listed for Concord. Within that group, Messi is the named winner of the Sports award.
The published announcement does not provide further detail on the selection process, a presentation date, or additional information concerning the sports award citation. It does, however, confirm the identity of the recipient and the category in which he has been recognised.
The Princess of Asturias Foundation also highlights multimedia material reviewing the history of its awards. That material covers facts and figures relating to laureates, jury members and the sculpture designed by Joan Miró, underlining the long-running cultural framework surrounding the annual distinctions.
A sports honour within a wider cultural programme
Messi’s inclusion on the 2026 list places a sporting figure within an awards programme that spans cultural, scientific and humanistic work. The Foundation describes its aims as contributing to the elevation and promotion of values it considers part of humanity’s universal heritage, while also consolidating links between the Principality of Asturias and the title traditionally held by the heirs to the Crown of Spain.
The Foundation additionally refers to an award for a town, village, population centre, scenic area or group of people in Asturias that has made a notable contribution to protecting natural or environmental surroundings, historical, cultural or artistic heritage, economic initiatives, communal works or displays of solidarity. That wider description reflects the range of civic and cultural interests associated with the institution.
For Messi, the confirmed 2026 Sports award is the key outcome of the Foundation’s latest published list. The announcement formally records him as this year’s sports laureate, alongside recipients from a diverse set of international fields.
