Opinion Express View on Lionel Messi getting booed in Hong Kong

Half the world worships the five foot seven man in the pink jacket, leaning against the side of the wall in the Inter Miami dugout, in the exhibition game against Hong Kong XI. It seems as if the whole of Hong Kong has come to the stadium, to get a glimpse of Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest footballer ever. Every second, the spectators pray for him to stride onto the pitch and dazzle them. But he doesn’t. He warms his heels on the bench for the duration of the game. The crowd can bear it no longer. Messi is booed. Refunds for ticket demanded. The Chinese government intervenes and demands a replay where Messi would play.

A “no show” had escalated into a global hellfire. Miami’s coach Gerardo Martino would later say that the Argentinian was unfit. Messi apologised, but the fire still rages. It’s unlikely that Messi would have been booed anywhere in the world. Even in Brazil, the land of his country’s bitter football rivals, or in Madrid, the home of El Clasico antagonists Real Madrid in his Barcelona days, he would not have been subject to such unkind behaviour. But Messi would know that all that is part of being Messi, the price of his excellence and fame. He would know, from experience, how cruel and fickle the world of fans is. It took him decades to win the love of his own countrymen, who regarded him as an outsider because he never played professional football in Argentina, joining Barcelona’s La Masia Academy when he had barely reached adolescence.

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Messi is neither the first celebrity to be booed, he will not be the last. Closer home, Sachin Tendulkar was jeered when he got out cheaply in a Test against England at the Wankhede in Mumbai, his home. He would return to a hero’s welcome again. That’s the nature of fandom. So if Messi ever returns to Hong Kong, he would receive a grand welcome, and he would hold no grudge either. Two decades of being a sporting celebrity have taught him better than to do that.