People in India are gearing up for the forthcoming event of the arrival of Argentine Footballer Lionel Messi. In the meantime, he will arrive in India on Saturday to be a part of his "GOAT Tour of India." First of all, the first venue is Kolkata, and he will reach there during the wee hours in the morning.
This is his second visit to Kolkata, the previous one being back in 2011. The previous meeting saw him play a FIFA international friendly match against a massive gathering of close to 85,000 people. The match was between Argentina and Venezuela, which the former won 1-0. For his current visit, however, there does not appear to be a competitive football match.
The tour event is to be held from Saturday to Monday. Despite Messi not participating in an official match, his visit has still drawn sufficient interest among the public, especially in Kolkata, where football is quite strong. On Saturday, there is a 45-minute programme that Messi will be attending at the Salt Lake Stadium, where it has reserved 78,000 seats for the programme.
His stay in India would be less than 72 hours. Within this short period, he would travel to Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi. This has been accompanied by his Inter Miami teammates Rodrigo De Paul and Luis Suarez. The list of people he would meet in his short tour included chief ministers, businessmen, people from the film industry, as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tour Programme
Saturday: Kolkata & Hyderabad
- Messi and his entourage are going to stay in a five-star hotel in Kolkata. He is going to launch a 70-foot statue of himself through video conferencing in the Lake Town area. He is not attending that ceremony due to security reasons.
- Later in the morning, he has an event at the Salt Lake Stadium, starting at 10:00am. The Argentine is scheduled to hobnob with ex-captain of the Indian cricket team Sourav Ganguly, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee.
- The next destination of Messi would be Hyderabad after the event at Kolkata. In Hyderabad, he has a program lined up at the Falaknuma Palace. In the evening, he has been invited to take part in an exhibition football match at Uppal Stadium, which is organized under the "GOAT Cup" event. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of Telangana was also scheduled to join him in the match commencing at 7:00 PM.
Sunday: Mumbai
- He plans to attend a number of events in Mumbai on Sunday. This includes a fashion show that has been organized for a charity cause. He also plans to play pickleball with a number of cricket players from the Cricket Club of India. He is reportedly going to be joined by Sachin Tendulkar.
- Later, Messi would visit the Wankhede Stadium, where he has scheduled a coaching clinic with 60 children. Monday: Delhi The final leg of his trip finds Messi attending a function at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. A coaching clinic for kids is also scheduled at the same venue. The Argentine superstar will be wrapping up his trip after a meeting with Prime Minister Modi.
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