A person walks past a poster announcing a football match between Argentina and Australia at a bus stop in Beijing, June 9, 2023.
Wang Zhao | AFP | Getty’s paintings
Argentine superstar Lionel Messi arrived in Beijing on Saturday for a friendly before leaving his illustrious European profession to join Major League Soccer team Inter Miami as a free agent.
His arrival was announced in a post on the official Weibo social page of the organizer of the International Football Invitation with a video of players disembarking from the plane ahead of Thursday’s Argentina-Australia match on the recently rebuilt Staff’ Stadium in the Chinese capital.
Messi, who lifted the World Cup in Qatar in December and is widely thought to be one in every of the all-time greats in the sport, confirmed this week that he could be leaving French champions Paris St Germain for the American league.
That is the Argentine captain’s seventh visit to China and the primary since 2017.
On each of his previous visits to China, he has been met with a warm welcome, which has a huge football fan base, despite the struggles of the boys’s national team, which has played just once in the World Cup.
His arrival was the most well-liked topic on Chinese social media on Saturday.
“I’m very excited,” said Guo Wenwen, a 26-year-old hospital administrator from Guizhou Province. Guo has been following Messi since 2014, owns around 30 replicas of Messi’s soccer jerseys and repeatedly posts videos on social media related to the Argentine.
Like many, she doesn’t have a match ticket yet, but she’s heading to Beijing anyway to see if she will get one.
“I’m going to Beijing to try to see him,” she told Reuters. “He’s my role model, my idol, my spiritual pillar, my ideal companion and source of happiness.”
In Beijing, lots of of fans dressed in replica shirts lined up for hours on the airport and hotel where Messi was supposed to be staying. Many provided live streams on social media, and a few chanted his name, hoping to see him. Some have contrasted his popularity with the poor view many hold of men’s representation.
“Many Chinese fans love soccer, however the Chinese national team is just very weak,” said Song Gang, 36, a resident of Beijing who joined the hordes on the hotel on Saturday but like most didn’t see Messi as he was shoved through a side door.
“We hope his visit could have a positive impact on Chinese football. But alternatively, have a look at the scale of our population and our national team has been playing for so a few years and the outcomes seem to be getting worse and worse. I hope they improve.”
Australia and Argentina last met on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in the round of 16 where Messi was one in every of the scorers as his team won 2-1.