Why fans in China & Hong Kong are furious with Lionel Messi | OneFootball

Highlights

Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest player to have ever graced the sport of football. For all the beautiful things he has done on the field of play, it's hard to dislike the 36-year-old.

Having won everything on offer at Barcelona, smashing all sorts of goalscoring records along the way, before then winning leagues in France with Paris Saint-Germain and finally lifting the World Cup in 2022, the Argentine is truly one of a kind. For this reason, he is nearly universally adored by all football fans.

However, in recent weeks, his reputation in Asia has taken a bit of a blow. In particular, lovers of the game in China and Hong Kong have expressed anger towards Messi of late.

Messi sits out Hong Kong friendly

Features in Japan three days later

The fury comes because the legendary footballer did not get off the bench for Inter Miami during a much-anticipated friendly in Hong Kong. Just days later, though, he was fit enough to feature in a match in Japan.

Indeed, having been too unfit to start against Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr, Messi came on as a substitute for around 10 minutes in that game in Saudi Arabia on 1 February. Three days later, he was left out completely for the match vs Hong Kong XI – which was won 4-1 by the MLS outfit.

At the time, Miami’s head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino explained that the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner still hadn't recovered enough from his injury concern to play in Hong Kong. Even so, just three days later, he played around 30 minutes off the bench in Japan as Miami took on Visell Kobe.

As per The Guardian, this has left Chinese state media, Hong Kong politicians and fans rather upset. They quote Hong Kong’s government as saying in a statement:

“Regarding Messi not playing the match today, the government, as well as all football fans, are extremely disappointed about the organisers’ arrangement. The organisers owe all football fans an explanation.”

Hong Kong’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau added their own statement in which they expressed their disappointment about his absence from the action. They added: “However three days later, Messi was able to play actively and freely in Japan … the government hopes the organisers and teams can provide reasonable explanations.”

What's more, China’s state-controlled Global Times media organisation claimed that the player's ability to get himself fit for one game but not the other posed many questions about the differential treatment given to Hong Kong. In an op-ed, it was written: “The match in Hong Kong became the only one in Messi’s six pre-season friendly matches on this trip where he was absent. The situation … has magnified these doubts and suspicions on the integrity of Inter Miami and Messi himself.”

Amid all of the fallout, Chinese sporting authorities have cancelled next month's friendly international between Argentina and Nigeria. The game was scheduled to take place in the Chinese city of Hangzhou but has been called off due to "the current well-known reasons".

Messi apologises to Chinese fans

Tickets cost as much as £507

Tickets for the game between Inter Miami and the Hong Kong XI were said to cost as much as £507 ($5,000 HKD). In total, 40,000 fans attended the game but many were left disappointed by the no-show from the Argentinian icon. Insult was added to injury with former Ajax, Liverpool and Barcelona star Luis Suarez also unable to play.

At the very least, the organiser of the friendly, Tatler Asia, a magazine and lifestyle brand, have said they will offer 50 per cent refunds to fans. As per The Guardian, this will cost them a whopping £5.7m ($56m HKD).

Messi did also later take to social media to apologise. Indeed, he wrote on the Chinese website Weibo:

Inter Miami also released a statement, saying: "Despite our best intentions, we understand there has been disappointment over the absence of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in Sunday's match and we are sorry that the two players could not participate.

"We also recognize that the late decision caused frustration among our Hong Kong supporters and the event promoter, Tatler Asia. We do feel it necessary to express that injuries are unfortunately a part of the beautiful game, and our player's health must always come first."

For many, though, the apologies appear to have been met with even more criticism. For instance, Regina Ip – the top adviser to Hong Kong leader John Lee – went as far as saying said the city’s people now "hate Messi" and his team Inter Miami, calling it a "deliberate and calculated snub". Writing on social media site X, she added the player should be banned from Hong Kong altogether.

Next up for Messi and Inter Miami is a trip back to his native Argentina. Fortunately, the 36-year-old has until 16 February to recover for this friendly. He won't want to miss it either as he'll be coming up against Newell's Old Boys, which is the club he played for as a kid before his move to Spain.