Who doesn’t love Messi?
There is something mesmerising about his minimalism. He has stripped the game back to its essentials; his greatest gift has perhaps been his capacity to select the lowest-tariff option necessary in any given situation. There is an impish grace to everything he does on a pitch and yet his success is rooted in cold, unfussy calculation.
But recently, something other than pure football is all over the news. When Inter Miami announced their tour to HK on Feb. 4th, 2024, almost right after Christiano Ronaldo visiting Shenzhen a week ago, the storm has raged Chinese football internet and triggered discussions and debates - the stans never really settled.
Inter Miami hosted two public event in HK - selling tickets for both the exhibition match and an open training session. Tickets were sold out within an hour, meanwhile with Messi fans excessively mocking CR7 for the cancel of thier own match because of their star player’s untimely injury.
Not a decent position to take, to be honest. Now the karma is back.
Financial Times posted. Leo Messi sat on the bench throughout the exhibition match. Fans were disappointed. Later fury aggregates and now even the HK gov. is pressing on this issue.
Such sharp reverse of opinion on the internet is once-in-a-while phenomenon. Good luck to Inter Miami’s PR team… Yet, it’s a little disappointing that nowadays, football is more than just football anymore.
(previously, the article is discussing what Messi’s might contribute to Inter Miami as an attacker - like, influence on football)
“…And perhaps that doesn’t really matter. This is about raising the profile of Inter Miami particularly and MLS in general, and about raising Messi’s status in the US. The deal will do that and it will make Messi richer. But it does say something about the condition of modern football that the marketing potential of the move so overshadows what it might mean on the pitch. This used to be a sport.”
Jonathan Wilson, July 2023. Money and profile, sure, but what does Lionel Messi bring to Miami on the pitch?
Doesn’t matter. As long as Adidas keeps putting out well-designed jerseys and acc kits, I’m all in for support. Btw, that’s how real fandom work, instead of spilling trash talks on the internet.