Mauro Icardi is arguably a more commonly-known name than Maxi Lopez in many circles, particularly in terms of top-level football. The former, of course, has played for the likes of Inter and Paris Saint-Germain, and is an Argentina international; Lopez, by comparison, is more of a journeyman, having featured for the likes of Barcelona, Torino, FC Moscow, Catania, and Vasco da Gama. And yet their stories are intertwined.
The pair met each other while playing for Barca and went on to become team-mates at Sampdoria. The two were close friends, even going so far as to holiday together. But the relationship was ultimately ill-fated, as Icardi would go on to have an affair with Lopez’s wife, Wanda Nara, a model, television presenter and now, football agent.
The story is one of betrayal, intrigue, and more than a few twists that rocked both Italian and Argentine football…
First meeting
In 2012-13, Icardi first crossed paths with Lopez as a professional footballer, when the latter was loaned to Sampdoria by Catania. The two had met previously, as an infamous photograph shows Icardi, as a child, meeting Lopez, while he was at Barcelona, but this would be the first time they shared a dressing room.
O pequeno Mauro Icardi pedindo um autógrafo ao seu ídolo Maxi López, nos tempos de Barcelona. pic.twitter.com/o30D3bl0GO
— LIBERTA DEPRE (@liberta___depre) October 12, 2023
Things got off to a bad start, however, as pair only played together four times, each time tasting defeat against Chievo, Cagliari, Atalanta and Inter.
At the time of his loan, Lopez and Nara were married, having tied the knot in 2008, and they had three sons, born in 2009, 2010, and 2012. The one season that Icardi and Lopez spent together would, however, ultimately lead to the breakdown of the latter’s marriage and the start of an almost unbelievable saga.
Alleged affair
It has long been alleged that Icardi and Nara first began seeing each other while she was still married to Lopez. That led to a split between Nara and Lopez, with their divorce settled in November 2013, and she would marry Icardi in early 2014.
Indeed, in the same year, Lopez and Icardi shared the pitch as opponents, when Sampdoria hosted Inter, and the former chose not to shake the hand of his old friend. That led to the media dubbing the clash the ‘Wanda Derby’, which continued whenever the friends-turned-enemies faced off.
Lopez’s reaction came as little surprise, however, given that Icardi had made the bizarre decision to have Lopez and Nara’s children tattooed on his arm. Accompanying the ink, he posted a message on Instagram in which he said he “loved these three little angels”, but the move appeared to be one to rub salt into his old pal’s wounds.
It came after Lopez had insisted that he was “not comfortable” with Icardi posting pictures of the children online, so he will have been less than happy to see their faces permanently inked on the striker’s body.
New family
Icardi and Nara did not exactly have a fling, more a relationship that blossomed into a marriage. The pair tied the knot just five months after Nara left Lopez, with just 12 guests invited to an intimate ceremony. They also welcomed a child of their own eight months later, suggesting Nara was pregnant before they were married.
Nara subsequently talked up Icardi’s sexual exploits – claiming that she was “starved” by Lopez in terms of their relationship – and a team-mate of Icardi’s, Daniele Adani, claimed he was told the pair would take to the bedroom 12 times a day.
However, in 2019, Nara was accused of cheating by a journalist, who claimed to have information that proved she had slept with Icardi’s team-mate Marcelo Brozovic. Nara took the reporter, Fabrizio Corona, to court, and was awarded damages in 2024, as were both Brozovic and Icardi.
So bitter was the fallout from the report, Nara claims it forced Icardi to leave San Siro, as he moved on to sign for PSG.
More cheating claims
A change of scenery did not lessen the drama around the pair, however, as they were embroiled in their own saga in 2022 as Nara accused Icardi of cheating. She unfollowed the striker on social media, posted a photo without a wedding ring, and accused him of “ruining” their family.
Icardi responded by claiming Nara- who had become his agent – was “toxic” and had attempted to “control his life”, but a few months later they were back together. Reports claimed that, to save the marriage, Icardi was forced to sign a contract that essentially promised all of his assets to Nara, including earnings from his current and future deals.
The package included Icardi’s properties, as well as the company World Marketing Football, which the pair set up together, leaving Nara as the sole owner.
Rocky road
While Nara claimed in 2023 that she and Icardi were happy together, the pair have endured a few rocky spells in the relationship. Nevertheless, they remain together, and in 2024, Nara said that the striker had slept with over 200 women before meeting her. In fact, Icardi was so in demand, he had four mobile phones upon meeting Nara; one for football matters, and three for women he was seeing, divided by continent.
Nara swiftly got rid of them – she claims she threw them into a river – and her stock has continued to rise in Italy, culminating in a spot on the country’s Dancing With The Stars TV show. Icardi, meanwhile, moved from PSG to Galatasaray in 2022 and has gone on to score 53 goals in just 70 games in Turkey.
And what of Lopez?
While Nara and Icardi continue to post loved-up pictures on social media, Lopez has moved on. The former Barca forward retired in 2021 after a lengthy career, hanging up his boots after a spell with Italian fourth-tier club US Sambenedettese. In terms of his love life, meanwhile, he is married to model Daniela Christiansson, with whom he has one child.
All three parties involved in the love triangle appear to have moved on, but it remains one of the most intriguing and bizarre stories of the past few years when it comes to top-level football. Most of the details would not be out of place in the script for a romantic comedy, although one might argue that Lopez would disagree.
Still, Nara and Icardi appear very happy, and Lopez is engaged to Christiansson, with a wedding to come. We can’t imagine Nara and Icardi will be invited…
