Lionel Messi arrived in Beijing on Saturday for Argentina‘s friendly match against Australia ahead of joining Major League Soccer side Inter Miami as a free agent.
Messi’s arrival was announced in a post on the organising International Football Invitation’s official Weibo social media site with a video of players stepping off a plane, ahead of Thursday’s match in the Chinese capital’s recently rebuilt Workers’ Stadium.
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Messi, who lifted the World Cup in Qatar in December and is widely considered to be one of the game’s all-time greats, confirmed this week he will leave French champions Paris Saint-Germain for the U.S. league.
This is the Argentina captain’s seventh visit to China and his first since 2017.
He has received a fervent welcome on each of his previous visits to China, which has a huge football fan base despite the struggles of the men’s national team, who have played at the World Cup only once.
Messi’s arrival was a top-trending topic on Chinese social media on Saturday.
