Lionel Messi is participating in pre-season training with Inter Miami for the first time. However, the highly advertised tour with the superstar turned into a complete disaster. Fans are angry.
In the American beer advertisement, Lionel Messi smiles in a friendly manner, taking the tension out of the situation. The tap doesn’t work? It doesn’t matter, it can happen. In real life, however, a nice look from the 36-year-old wasn’t enough to appease thousands of angry football fans: the first pre-season preparation for the world champion from Argentina in the Inter Miami jersey turned into a PR disaster – and Messi became a target malicious and unfriendly reports from China.
Sporty? Things didn’t go well for co-owner David Beckham’s team either, with a record of 8:13 goals and only one win in seven games. Messi’s only goal came from a penalty. The 1-1 draw in the last test before the start of the season, when Messi played for 60 minutes against his youth club Newell’s Old Boys last week, was a small step. “This game was important for a good feeling at the start of the season,” said coach Gerardo Martino. But even the emotional reunion with Argentina’s past couldn’t hide the failed preparation.
“Ballerina in a tutu”
But what exactly happened? The trigger for the bad press was a test match in the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong that was widely announced with Messi as the protagonist. Some of the around 38,000 fans even traveled from Australia to Hong Kong to see the Argentine play. But Messi, like former FC Barcelona striker Luis Suárez, sat on the bench for 90 minutes in the 4-1 win. In previous test matches in Saudi Arabia, Messi had only been substituted on, to the displeasure of many fans.
Messi later said he had adductor problems. However, the fact that the Argentine was back on the pitch just a few days later in the friendly against Vissel Kobe in Japan further fueled the frustration of the Chinese fans. According to US media, a commentator for the “South China Morning Post” described Messi as a “brutal flamingo” in reference to Inter Miami’s pink jerseys. “Anyone who looked at him might as well have been staring at a ballerina in a tutu,” the man said.
“It’s a shame because I always want to play, I want to be there, and especially when we travel so far and people are so happy to see us,” Messi said apologetically, but there was no anger from China to brake more. The organizer in Hong Kong has already announced a partial refund of 50 percent of the tickets, which cost up to almost 600 euros.
Most expensive tickets at $7,400
But the incident has even more far-reaching consequences: Chinese organizers also canceled a planned friendly match by the Argentine national team “for well-known reasons”. The national team was supposed to play against Nigeria in eastern China. Fans there may no longer have the chance to see the now eight-time world footballer play live. Messi will turn 37 in June.
But even in the USA it is still a costly affair to get tickets for Inter Miami games. Miami will be involved in all of the 25 most expensive games of the coming season – 15 away, 10 at home – as a ticket portal announced shortly before the start of the season. The home game against Real Salt Lake is sold out. Tickets are still available for the game on February 25th against the Los Angeles Galaxy: they start at $250. The most expensive tickets are more than $7,400. But there is no guarantee that Messi will play.