G.O.A.T. Tour: Messi mania sweeps Kolkata ahead of star’s arrival
Kolkata: Argentine superstar Lionel Messi’s long-awaited return to India, after a magical maiden visit back in 2011, will be high on glitz but low on actual football, promising a spectacle that may not recapture the raw sporting frenzy that once shook the Salt Lake Stadium here.
His artistry in a competitive match will be missing this time. It would be quite unlike 2011 when more than 85,000 fans packed the stadium, some even perched on terrace edges, to watch Argentina edge Venezuela 1-0 in a FIFA friendly.
The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner is not scheduled to play serious football on the ‘G.O.A.T. India Tour 2025’. It is a fully promotional, and commercially-curated event which will begin on Saturday here and wind up on Monday in New Delhi.
Yet, for a city that once worshipped Maradona, Pele, dazzled Dunga and embraced Ronaldinho, the arrival of Messi even without football is unmissable because Kolkata cannot ignore him.
The organisers have opened 78,000 seats at the Salt Lake Stadium with ticket prices going up to Rs 7,000 for his 45-minute appearance on Saturday morning, raising questions on whether the city will respond with the same unrestrained passion. Messi will spend less than 72 hours in India but will traverse four metropolis -- Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi -- in what has increasingly begun to resemble a high-profile roadshow involving chief ministers, corporate heavyweights, Bollywood celebrities and even a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The highlight of the tour will be a 45-minute philanthropic fashion event in Mumbai on Sunday, featuring Messi, his long-time strike partner Luis Suarez and Argentina midfielder Rodrigo De Paul.
“There will be celebrity models, cricketers, Bollywood celebrities, millionaires, founders. Tiger and Jackie Shroff, John Abraham among others,” said Satadru Dutta, sole promoter of the tour.
Suarez will also feature in a Spanish music show. The organisers have requested Messi to bring “some memorabilia” of his trophy-winning 2022 World Cup campaign which will be auctioned during the Mumbai leg.
