The magic of ‘Messimania’ in Hong Kong

Thousands of soccer fans flocked to watch Lionel Messi train with teammates at soccer club Inter Miami in Hong Kong on Saturday.

Police cordoned off the streets around Hong Kong Stadium as crowds of fans gathered on Saturday to catch a glimpse of the Argentine superstar and the greatest player of all time ahead of Sunday’s match.

Fans lined up outside the 40,000-capacity stadium hours before Inter Miami’s players took to the field for an open training session. The fans chanted the name of the World Cup winning captain.

David Beckham is the co-owner of Major League Soccer Club. On his arrival, almost all the fans in the stadium gave him a warm welcome.

But a few minutes later when Messi, 36, arrived with his teammates for a light workout, the fans gave him a very loud welcome.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner spent most of the hour-long training session working out due to a hamstring injury, but later played football with 80 lucky Hong Kong school children during the coaching session. Appeared.

Soon after, Beckham came forward and taught the kids some tricks of the game. But it was Messi who most fans flocked to watch ahead of Sunday’s friendly against Hong Kong Select XI.

“I saw Messi for the first time in my life,” said Li Wei, a 17-year-old Chinese student. He arrived in Hong Kong from Shenzhen, China.

According to Wei: ‘I’m very excited. They are very important to me. He brought me into the world of football. They taught me to love football.’

Most fans wore Argentina or Inter Miami pink shirts with blue and white stripes.

‘The best player of all time’

Sally Liu, a 28-year-old student from Hong Kong, who was wearing a T-shirt commemorating Messi and Argentina winning the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, said: ‘He is a very skilled player. It’s great fun watching them play.’

‘Now they play in Miami so I won’t have many opportunities to see them in the future. He is the best player ever. When his team became the world champion, I expressed my emotions in a powerful way.’

On Friday, hundreds of people gathered outside the hotel in the south of the city where Messi’s team is staying to catch a glimpse of their hero.

Argentinean Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi arrives in Hong Kong with the Inter Miami Football Club team on February 2, 2024 (AFP/Peter Parks)

Meanwhile, the traditional boat kept circling the port. Messi’s face was emblazoned in pink on its sails. This color represents intermami.

Tickets for Sunday’s match went on sale in December and sold out within an hour. Shirts with Messi’s image sold quickly, according to sports goods retailers.

Messi has a bit of a hamstring problem during his team’s busy tour, so he is being careful with the hamstring issue. His team is playing six matches in 19 days ahead of the start of the MLS (Major League Soccer) season starting on February 21.

“We will evaluate each player after training because we are playing a lot of pre-season matches,” Inter Miami head coach Gerardo Martino told reporters.

He said, ‘My wish is that Leo (Messi) can play as long as possible.’