On Monday, Lionel Messi utilized one of China’s prominent social media platforms to clarify speculation surrounding his absence in a recent friendly match held by Inter Miami in Hong Kong. The Argentina star’s absence triggered anger among fans in the city and mainland China who paid hundreds of dollars to see him play. Some even demanded refunds. But three days later, the 36-year-old Argentine forward came off the bench in a friendly match in Tokyo, easing tensions.
“I want to clear things up for those who think I didn’t come to play in Hong Kong because of political reasons,” Messi said in a video posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo. The video was viewed more than 8 million times as of Tuesday morning. It is the latest attempt to calm the storm after Messi’s public apology, a press conference in Japan and a written statement published on Weibo. The saga prompted some local sporting authorities to cancel planned Argentina games in Hong Kong and Shanghai as well as Beijing.
Messi’s Hong Kong absence sparked a wave of online outrage in the special administrative region, where top government advisor Regina Ip accused the club and its organizer, Tatler Asia, of seeking to embarrass Beijing or even engaging in sinister foreign interference. Angry fans, who had splashed upward of 4,800 Hong Kong dollars ($500) to attend the sold-out game on Feb. 4 chanted “Refund!” and drowned out co-owner David Beckham when he tried to thank them.
Chinese state media chimed in, with an editorial in state-backed tabloid Global Times suggesting that Messi and Inter Miami had political motives for boycotting the game. The saga also has become the latest flashpoint in an ongoing dispute between Hong Kong and China over the territory’s political freedoms, including a clampdown on dissent.
The saga is also the latest example of how soccer stars and other celebrities are becoming increasingly entangled in diplomatic relations with China. Earlier this month, Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe was booed by fans when he appeared with a group of pro-democracy activists at the end of a preseason tour. In 2021, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon faced public backlash in China for quipping that he would outlast Beijing, and was forced to apologize in Mandarin.
The saga also underscores how sports teams and players are increasingly courting Chinese fans in an effort to build revenue and increase exposure in the world’s most populous nation, where fans can make or break a team’s success. In an era of growing nationalistic sentiment in the country, the appeal for global stars to stay on China’s side is only going to intensify. That, in turn, has made it harder for athletes to veer from the party line. Even so, the risk of a diplomatic row remains high. “When you’re dealing with billions of people, it takes very little to upset a large chunk of the population,” Grady says. “It’s a dangerous thing for any athlete to do.”
