Messi coming to India in September, confirmed

Barring any unforeseen turn of events, the Argentine and Venezuelan teams will play a friendly on September 2 at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.

Anyone will be going for it? I am thinking of buying tickets for the training session as well as the match.

Don't get your hopes up too much, I wouldn't put it past AFA to play a second-rate team there.

Not saying that Messi won't play, but that I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't bring a full-strength team.

Yea, that's also possible, but the agreement seems to be that Argentina must field a full strength side.

Messi, Argentina set to play in India: report
(AFP) – 5 hours ago
NEW DELHI — Lionel Messi and his Argentina team mates will travel to India later this year to take on Venezuela in a friendly designed to boost football on the subcontinent, a report said Tuesday.
The FIFA-sanctioned game is scheduled for September 2 in the eastern city of Kolkata and the Argentinian team will then travel to Bangladesh where they will take on Nigeria, the Press Trust of India (PTI) newsagency reported.
"The Argentina Football Association has indeed signed a contract to bring in the full-strength squad including Messi and Carlos Tevez among others," Bhaskar Goswami of the Celebrity Management Group was quoted as saying by PTI.
"The contract guarantees their participation."
The Argentina squad will arrive in Kolkata on August 30 and will take part in a number of events, including a charity programme and a football clinic for children during a four-day stay.
It was unclear if world player of the year Messi, whose club side Barcelona begin their La Liga title defence the day before, would fly out with his Argentina team mates or join the tour later.
After the Kolkata outing, the Argentine contingent will travel to Dhaka for another friendly against Nigeria on September 6, the report said.
Football is yet to take off in cricket-mad India despite enjoying considerable success in the 1950s and 1960s when they won two Asian Games gold medals.
The size of its population and the associated commercial potential has long seen it regarded as one of the great untapped markets for the sport.
Top European clubs including Bayern Munich have visited India in the past to play exhibition matches in a bid to build on the interest in the game in the country of 1.2 billion people.

he has to play its not in the contract.

it would be highly disappointing if i get to see no messi after paying 2k-3k Rs.

bazinga any plans to come and see the match?

Plan A - Football mad friend group.

Plan B - Dad.

i think tickets are 1k and 5k rs ...... hopefully will be able to make it ..... and messi better play even if he doesn't start or kolkata will go crazy

alfredandrew wrote:Don't get your hopes up too much, I wouldn't put it past AFA to play a second-rate team there.

Not saying that Messi won't play, but that I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't bring a full-strength team.

I wouldn't be surprised either, the AFA and Grondona disgust me. They cheat their way through agreed upon friendlies for the money and just pocket it. It's sick, I can't wait to Grondona dies or retires.

88844452999 wrote:i think tickets are 1k and 5k rs ...... hopefully will be able to make it ..... and messi better play even if he doesn't start or kolkata will go crazy

where are you from?

i am goin to come watch this.... exams ftw.. but why the hell does every player go to kolkata ..lol.. man.. there are decent stadia in ahmedabad too

Why not New delhi?

Damn you ...

I really dunno..

I have to get into a good college next year and i don't my family will allow me to go to Kolkata to watch these guys considering my exams ..

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Nishank wrote:Why not New delhi?

Why not Bangalore?

In all seriousness Calcutta is the most football crazy city in India.