Lionel Messi revolutionizes Hong Kong: he changed his Instagram profile photo and filled a stadium with an Inter Miami training session

Everything Lionel Messi does is news. The figure of the best footballer in history is magnetic even for less passionate footballers. This was evident in Hong Kongsecond stage of the tour through Asia which he undertakes with his team InterMiami. This Saturday the Flea had one canonical event because he changed the profile photo of his Instagram accountjust before training in a stadium full of fansin which he even agreed to share the famous ‘crazy’ game with a group of children.

Earlier in the day in Argentina, many were surprised when they accessed Messi’s profile, where he has 498 million followers, and saw that the photo with his eighth Ballon d’Or was no longer there. I had chosen that image last Novemberwhen after two years he changed his profile and left the tender family photo in Barcelona with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and his children Thiago, Mateo and Ciro.

Messi chose, perhaps, his most iconic photo: it is that of the Lusail stadium, with the World Cup in his hand as he is carried on a stretcher across the playing field in the middle of the celebration of the third star by the Argentine national team.

Some time later, Lionel Messi led the Inter Miami team which had its first training session in those lands where it will play its fourth pre-season friendly (three defeats and a draw). The peculiarity was that the tickets for this open-door training session sold out in record time and the image of the Hong Kong stadium was impressive.

In addition to ‘Messimanía’ there is also another explanation. The semi-autonomous city has become the epicenter of football fervorleaving behind numerous obstacles that prevented the authorities from organizing large events due to delays in their implementation post-pandemic reopening.

In fact, Sunday’s match is part of something more 80 major events to be held in the first half of the year of the year to boost Hong Kong’s economy.

The friendly is surrounded by great expectations in the region, which has long been adorned by the façade of the M+ museum, which projects a giant image of Messi on Victoria Harbour, to the iconic traditional boats which, in homage to the star, lift the image in the their sails.

Passion for the Fort Lauderdale group has skyrocketed, as has the sale of promotional items, such as T-shirts, which have sold out, or police crowd control measures, which include street closures and warnings against fan hysteria.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the team hotel Friday hoping to see and touch their heroes after they landed aboard a private jet from Saudi Arabia. In addition to Messi, the figures of Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba also monopolize the flashes.

During training on Saturday, Messi agreed to play a ‘loco’ – the typical circular passing game while a teammate tries to catch it – with a group of children who couldn’t believe what was happening around them . There was also space for the ‘intruders’, who dared to run among the security workers: one came just enough for Messi, who signed his right arm as he bowed to him..

Does Messi play?

Inter Miami will face a Hong Kong First Division team this Sunday, starting at 4.50pm (Argentina time).

Without a doubt, Messi’s presence was the main reason to expect a packed stadium, with fans eager to see the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner in action.

However, concerns are being raised over the Argentine’s participation, due to possible contractual restrictions.

According to a Hong Kong government source to the South China Morning Post, there are specific clauses of the contract which require the intervention, unless he suffers from an illness or injury which prevents it.

“We have the expectation that Leo plays as long as possible,” his coach Gerardo Martino said of the match, for which between 40,000 and 40,000 spectators paid. 103 and 573 euros.

Despite the defeats suffered in preseason friendlies, fans continue to show their support and faith, turning out en masse on Saturday afternoon to applaud the team’s performance on a day of training at the Hong Kong Stadium.

Las Garzas have embarked on an intense international tour that will take them to travel more than 38,500 kilometers in less than a month.

After starting the preseason with a trip to El Salvador, the team traveled to Texas to face Dallas FC and later traveled to Saudi Arabia to face Al Hilal and Al Nassr.

In the four preparation matches played this year, the American club, owned among others by the British David Beckham, he received a total of 11 goalsexposing a vulnerable defense.

The most sensational defeat occurred in the last match, last Thursday, where they were beaten with a resounding 6-0 against Al Nassr, without the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo in the call-up, due to an injury, for which the friendly matches of the Saudi team in the city of Shenzhen, in southern China, had been suspended a week earlier.

The big question at this point is whether pink team coach ‘Tata’ Martino will use Messi in Sunday’s match or rest him again to avoid a muscle injury, as happened last Thursday, when he was barely on the pitch for the last 13 minutes.