10-6-2023 (SHANGHAI) Argentine football sensation Lionel Messi arrived in Beijing over the weekend to participate in a friendly match before embarking on a new chapter in his career with Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami as a free agent. The International Football Invitation, the event’s organizer, announced his arrival on their official Weibo social media account, sharing a video of players disembarking from the plane. Messi’s visit is timed ahead of Thursday’s Argentina-Australia match, which will be held at the recently rebuilt Workers’ Stadium in the Chinese capital.
Messi, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time and led his national team to victory at the World Cup in Qatar in December 2022, confirmed this week that he will be leaving French champions Paris St Germain to join the U.S. league.
This is Messi’s seventh visit to China, with his last trip to the country taking place in 2017. He has previously received a warm welcome from Chinese football fans, who have a passionate following despite the struggles of their national team, which has only qualified for the World Cup once.
The upcoming match between Argentina and Australia will be a rematch of their encounter at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where Messi scored a goal to help his team secure a 2-1 victory in the round of 16.
