Lionel Messi is coming to India on a 3-day journey for the GOAT tour. No, this isn’t a go to that includes soccer, in contrast to the final time method again in 2011, when Messi’s Argentina performed a world pleasant on the Salt Lake Stadium.
This time, the legendary footballer is arriving on a whirlwind journey through which he’ll participate in a shocking variety of non-footballing actions inside 72 hours. He’ll journey throughout 4 cities, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi, between 13 and 15 December, following a schedule that feels extra like a political roadshow than a sports activities go to.
It’s value noting that 2025 was initially purported to be Messi’s second go to to India to truly play a soccer match. The Kerala authorities had labored laborious to accumulate a world pleasanthowever these plans collapsed after the required permissions failed to come back by. As soccer followers throughout the nation sighed in disappointment, sports activities promoter from Bengal, Satadru Dutta revealed probably the most weird plans in latest Indian sporting historical pastHe would deliver Messi on an India-wide tour through which the footballer would take part in a sequence of light-hearted actions that had no actual connection to the game that made him a family title the world over,
The timing couldn’t be extra ironic. Messi’s go to comes at a second when Indian soccer is probably at its lowest level. The All India Soccer Federation (AIFF) has did not safe sponsors and broadcasters for the Indian Tremendous League. It’s already December 12, and there’s nonetheless no readability on when the highest soccer competitors within the nation will resume, if it resumes in any respect.
Messi’s Go to Has No Connection to Soccer
Given the state of soccer within the nation, fittingly and frustratingly, Lionel Messi’s journey has no connection to footballing issues. Throughout his time within the nation, Messi will meet three chief ministers, the prime minister of the nation and a parade of celebrities. If reviews within the Indian media are correct, the unique plan even included Messi enjoying superstar cricket matches. The concept that India would host the best footballer of all time but nonetheless fail to suppose past cricket is astonishing. Fortunately, somebody finally realized the absurdity and scrapped that concept altogether.
The revised plans usually are not a lot better. Messi is scheduled to fulfill an extended record of individuals in Kolkata and nearly unveil a 70-foot statue on December 13. After a packed morning, he’ll fly to Hyderabad, the place he’ll play a 7v7 exhibition match that may embrace Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy.
To be trustworthy, Messi’s schedule in India feels extra exhausting than European soccer. As a substitute of three matches per week, he’ll attend 4 occasions in three days, throughout 4 corners of the nation.
Lionel Messi in India. The place are the Indian Footballers?
On the GOAT’s journey to India, one would have anticipated not less than some interplay with the Indian nationwide soccer group. The absence of the ISL may even have allowed Indian gamers the pliability to fulfill somebody lots of them most likely idolise. However there isn’t a such occasion scheduled in any metropolis. Messi’s time has been reserved for politicians and Bollywood stars in what’s going to successfully be a glitzy roadshow.
India Immediately realized that former nationwide captain Sunil Chhetri, the fourth-highest goalscorer in worldwide soccer, was invited to fulfill Messi. Chhetri politely declined, stating {that a} assembly with Messi wouldn’t do something significant for Indian soccer.
His stance solely reinforces the broader hollowness surrounding the occasion.
GOAT Tour. How Are the Tickets Promoting?
The general public response to Messi’s go to has been blended. Kolkata is anticipated to be essentially the most excited, but this has not been absolutely mirrored in ticket gross sales on the Salt Lake Stadium. On the District app, many sections of the bottom are nonetheless unfilled, regardless of expectations of a whole sellout. The scenario is comparable in Hyderabad.
Curiously, Delhi and Mumbai – two of the nation’s strongest cricketing bases – have seen nice response. Delhi’s smaller occasion is bought out, and Mumbai has seen sturdy ticket gross sales regardless of costs that exceed these of many Indian Premier League matches.
GOAT Tour: Credit score The place it’s Due
Former East Bengal captain Anit Ghosh credited Satadru Dutta for pulling off an enormous logistical and monetary feat. Dutta, the only real promoter of the occasion, secured sponsors and satisfied Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul to come back to India for one thing solely distinctive.
“Satadru Dutta ought to get the credit score for bringing Lionel Messi to India and for the way in which the sponsors have responded. In fact, the sponsors will make investments the place they see returns,” Anit Ghosh advised India Immediately over telephone.
The previous India defender additionally criticized the AIFF for its incapability to safe even a single sponsor for the ISL, whereas Satadru managed to deliver corporations like Adani, HSBC and JSW on board for a three-day occasion.
“The truth that Satadru has outdone AIFF is absolutely hilarious. He has managed to drag off sponsors for a first-of-its-kind occasion in India. And AIFF, with a giant group, can not safe sponsors to run the nation’s largest league?”
What do Trade Consultants Say About Messi’s Journey?
India Immediately spoke to a number of individuals throughout the soccer business, starting from ISL membership officers to sports activities promoters. They agreed that Messi’s go to is a part of a broader cultural shift. In latest instances, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, David Beckham and Harry Maguire have all visited India, and it’s realized that Chelsea legend John Terry can also be due for a visit. Consultants imagine that a rise within the frequency of such visits might finally encourage sponsors to speculate extra in Indian soccer.
Nevertheless, one ISL insider expressed frustration. He argued that if sports-focused sponsors genuinely wished to assist Indian soccer, a greater method would have been to sponsor coaching publicity for a choose group of 25 gifted children in Argentina or Europe. That, he mentioned, would have contributed way more to the game than a star meet-and-greet tour.
Lionel Messi Set to Meet Minerva Academy Children
The one redeeming a part of the GOAT tour is Messi’s scheduled interplay with Minerva Academy children at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium through the closing leg of his journey. The kids from Minerva Academy have constantly made headlines for his or her performances in age-group tournaments abroad. Their mentor, Ranjit Bajaj, has repeatedly argued that with correct funding on the grassroots degree, India can produce a number of gifted footballers. With sustained assist, he believes the nation may even uncover its personal Messi.
This second will possible be a vindication for Bajaj. He’ll assist fulfill the desires of a number of kids who’ve solely ever watched Messi on a display screen. The assembly in Delhi may turn out to be not solely a cherished reminiscence however an necessary a part of their improvement as effectively.
The Irony of Lionel Messi’s India Journey
It’s maybe the best irony of Messi’s journey that he’ll spend most of his time assembly the nation’s political and business elite as an alternative of partaking with the game that made him who he’s. The choice to keep away from even a brief soccer exhibition with Indian gamers says a terrific deal in regards to the state of soccer within the nation.
One additionally wonders what Messi himself will make of the pageantry he will probably be dragged by throughout these three days.
“The state of soccer on this nation displays how good-for-nothing the AIFF is. The imaginative and prescient they got here in with, what precisely have they achieved? They’ve left Indian soccer in ruins. This can be a enormous failure for the political management and the golf equipment as effectively,” one former participant advised India Immediately on the situation of anonymity.
“I’ve performed soccer with Kalyan Chaubey. However after I take a look at him as a president and I take a look at his work, I’m ashamed,” he added.
Messi’s go to will deliver pleasure, spectacle and headlines, however little or no that resembles progress for the game itself. India will spend three days celebrating the best footballer of all time, but the nation’s personal soccer ecosystem stays with out route, funding or readability. Till Indian soccer confronts its deeper issues and calls for extra from those that govern it, even the presence of Lionel Messi will stay nothing greater than a glittering distraction.
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