2024-02-19 23:14:47
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published yesterday at 7:50 p.m., Updated 4 hours ago
Lionel Messi did not come off the bench in Hong Kong. Lam Yik / REUTERS
The former Barça and PSG player remained on the bench on February 4, during a friendly match for his team, Inter Miami, in Hong Kong. It is justified on the Chinese social network Weibo.
Argentine football star Lionel Messi wanted to explain in a video on Monday the reasons for his absence during a friendly match of his club, Inter Miami, in Hong Kong on February 4, which had created controversy . “As everyone knows, I always want to play and be present in every match”the 36-year-old eight-time Ballon d’Or justifies himself in this video published on the Chinese social network Weibo. “I heard that I didn’t want to play for political reasons, but if that had been the case I wouldn’t have made the trip to Hong Kong”.
The former star of FC Barcelona, the reigning world champion in Qatar, also stressed that since the beginning of his football career, his relations with China had always been “very good and very narrow”. “I did a lot of things with China, interviews, and matches with both Barcelona and the Argentinian selection”.
I had inflammation in my adductors.
Lionel Messi
Messi once again assured that he did not play due to physical problems. “It’s as simple as I said before: I had inflammation in my adductors and I couldn’t play. I read and heard a lot after what happened in the match in Hong Kong, that’s why I decided to make this video to explain what it really is, so as not to have to read false things”he added.
Lionel Messi and Inter Miami angered spectators when the star remained on the substitutes’ bench during a friendly match against a local team in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Messi had cited an injury.
The spectators, who had paid up to 4,800 Hong Kong dollars (570 euros), had expressed their dissatisfaction with the absence of the player, but especially with his attitude, because he had not addressed the public to apologize. The controversy further swelled when on February 7 Messi played 30 minutes of a friendly match against Kobe in Japan.
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