When World Cup Champion Lionel Messi arrived in San Jose last Sunday, most people knew where he and his team were staying. Most except for ChatGPT.
After a storied career with Barcelona and Paris St-Germain, Messi, arguably the world’s greatest living footballer, shocked everyone in 2023 when he signed for Inter Miami, a relatively new franchise in Major League Soccer. He was a global phenomenon far beyond any American athlete in any sport, an iconic figure that transcended all possible borders. Millions of kids around the world, maybe even a billion, on every continent, in cities and in slums, grew up idolizing him.
Messi’s first Bay Area appearance was a 2009 exhibition game with Barcelona against Chivas from Mexico at Candlestick Park, a game I attended. Messi played just the first half.
Last Sunday, when someone posted a blurry photo of Messi and Miami arriving at Hotel Valencia in Santana Row, the image wasn’t immediately recognizable. The team entered from the side of the hotel, on Tatum Lane, a cross street the police had blocked off with barricades. In the photo, hordes of screaming fans were forced to stand behind the barricades.
When the photo started circulating, I was sitting across from the Signia by Hilton in downtown San Jose, so I knew the photo was not of the Signia. I knew the team wasn’t staying there. For a joke, I sent the photo to ChatGPT to see if it could figure out the mystery. After comparing the photo with known imagery of the Signia’s façade, ChatGPT deduced that the photo was indeed taken at the Signia, which was obviously untrue.
I then asked, “Are you sure it wasn’t Hotel Valencia?”
Here was ChatGPT’s response: “Based on the architectural features visible in the photo of Lionel Messi’s arrival—specifically, the wide, covered driveway with polished stone columns and modern canopy—it aligns more closely with the entrance of Signia by Hilton San Jose. The Mediterranean-inspired design of Hotel Valencia Santana Row does not match the elements observed in the photo.”
ChatGPT was wrong. The team was staying at Hotel Valencia, as was obviously the case when I arrived a few hours later. Tatum Lane was still blocked off. Multiple police officers and other hotel security milled about.
On a Sunday Mother’s Day evening, Santana Row was a madhouse. Every restaurant was jammed with people young and old. So were the sidewalks. Wealthy pristine-looking characters pranced around every which direction. I probably heard ten different languages. It was a far cry from downtown San Jose on Sundays.
As the night unfolded at Hotel Valencia, small pockets of Messi fans, a few in Barcelona shirts, stuck it out, remaining steadfast in front of the main entrance, where four security guards were not letting anyone inside the hotel. The fans declared they would stand there until Messi came out. One fan, originally from China, said he came to the US at age five, but had started following Messi at four and a half.
Local artist Leysar Garcia was among the fans waiting outside. He showed up with two of his own paintings. I met him as he carried the paintings down Stevens Creek Blvd on his way to the hotel. He obviously knew more than ChatGPT.
One of Garcia’s amazing paintings featured Messi wearing his Argentina national team jersey, hand over his heart. The other was based on the famous photo of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing chess on a Louis Vuitton suitcase. After the hotel security figured out that Garcia was intending to give the paintings to Messi, they just rolled their eyes. But everybody was happy. Everyone loved Messi.
As the fans lingered, a Real Madrid fan then walked by and tried to argue that Benzema was better than Messi. Everyone laughed in his face.
After another hour, hotel staff told the fans that they couldn’t stand in front of the hotel anymore. A managerial-looking dude came out and instructed the fans to move around to the side of the hotel. “You’ll have better luck over there,” he told them.
In the end, I could not stay around long enough to see if Garcia was able to meet Messi and give him the paintings. I hope he did.
