THE proposed friendly match between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and world champions Argentina will no longer take place following backlash that trailed Lionel Messi’s failure to appear for his club Inter Miami in Hong Kong.
Messi was the major attraction for an exhibition match between Inter Miami and a Hong Kong XI but the Argentina captain did not play a single minute of the match last week, leaving thousands of fans disappointed and angry.
Argentina were scheduled to play the Super Eagles in the Chinese city of Hangzhou in March before facing Cote d’Ivoire in Beijing, but Messi’s failure to play for Inter Miami in Hong Kong on Sunday caused widespread anger among fans.
The organisers of the Hong Kong match said they would give fans a 50% refund for tickets after the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner did not take the field during their 4-1 win against Hong Kong All-Stars due to injury, but played in Japan days later.
The blowback grew yesterday, with Hangzhou sports authorities announcing that Argentina’s friendly against Nigeria would no longer take place.
“As a commercial event, a company and the Argentinian soccer team negotiated that the team would play a friendly match in March this year in the city of Hangzhou,” the Hangzhou authorities said in a statement, adding that the match would no longer be played.
Messi and his team-mates had arrived in Hong Kong last Friday after being thrashed 6-0 by Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr in Riyadh the day before. The Portuguese superstar did not make an appearance, while Messi played only the final seven minutes.
Reports claimed that the 36-year-old former Barcelona superstar had been carrying a hamstring injury upon the team’s arrival. But according to Hong Kong’s sports minister, Messi had been contracted to play for at least 45 minutes.
Inter Miami then defeated Hong Kong All-Stars 4-1 at the Hong Kong stadium, but the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, despite being named on the bench, was not brought on by manager Gerardo Martino, making fans inside the stadium unhappy.
The majority of the Hong Kong fans had come solely to watch Messi play and some even took their anger out on advertising hoardings around the stadium, with a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing one fan kicking a cardboard stand of the superstar and several of his team-mates, taking the Argentina captain’s head off.
Nigeria and Argentina have been involved in several friendlies and have met at the 1994, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018 World Cups.
