Messi Confirmed to Lead Argentina at Gongti in June
The Argentine Embassy in China has confirmed that star player Lionel Messi will be coming to Beijing to lead the country’s men’s football team in a friendly match in Beijing this June, reports Beijing Daily.
The news comes after the match between the FIFA World Cup 2022 champions and the Australian men’s team was confirmed last week to be taking place on Jun 15 at Workers’ Stadium.
Messi’s involvement was announced in a post by the Argentine Embassy on Weibo today (see below). The post also says the Argentine team will be heading to Jakarta, Indonesia next. There, Argentina will play the Indonesian men’s team in another friendly on Jun 19, according to USA Today.
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Along with winning the Player of the Match award in the FIFA World Cup final (https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/world-cup-awards-tracker-2022-list-all-fifa-honors-they-are-unveiled-qatar/hbqjnu1gti8c8cbtiqtbwusb), Messi also took the Golden Ball award, being named the best player in the tournament for 2022.
Although it’s only a friendly, this is somewhat of a rematch for the two teams, with Argentina having beaten Australia 2-1 in the World Cup’s Round of 16 last year. This meant elimination for Australia and propelled Argentina forward to their eventual Cup win against France.
No other information has been released thus far, and our contact at Gongti told us ticketing will be opened closer to the match date.
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Images: Wikipedia, Beijing Daily
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