Messi in Beijing for friendly before move to Miami

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, June 10 (Agencies): Argentine superstar Lionel Messi arrived in Beijing on Saturday for a friendly match before leaving a storied European career to join Major League Soccer side Inter Miami as a free agent.
His 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 (June 15) Argentina-Australia match in the Chinese capital's recently rebuilt Workers' Stadium.
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 St Germain (PSG) for the US 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 soccer fan base despite the struggles of the men's national team, who have played at the World Cup only once.
"Messi! Messi!" chanted several hundred fans who were waiting for him at the airport, many wearing the blue-and-white striped jersey of the Albiceleste's No.10, according to social media images.
Several hundred others waited outside his hotel, not far from the banks of the Liangma River, popular with Beijingers for strolls.
This is Messi's seventh trip to China, the last being in 2017, according to local media.
World champions Argentina will play a friendly against Australia on June 15 at Beijing's newly-renovated 68,000-capacity Workers' Stadium.
By mid-day, the arrival of global sporting superstar Messi was the most talked-about topic on the Weibo social network.
"I absolutely want to see Messi!" wrote one user, echoing others' comments.
"I am still feeling the emotions of the match of when Argentina secured the World Cup," said another, referring to the Albiceleste's victory after an epic final against France in December.
His arrival was a top-trending topic on Chinese social media on Saturday.
"I'm so excited," said 26-year-old hospital administration worker Guo Wenwen from Guizhou province. Guo has followed Messi since 2014, owns around 30 replica Messi soccer jerseys and regularly posts videos on social media related to the Argentine.
Like many she does not yet have a ticket for the match but she is going to Beijing anyhow to see if she can get one.
"I'm going to Beijing to try to see him," she told Reuters. "He is my role model, my idol, my spiritual pillar, is the ideal type of company and a source of happiness."
In Beijing, hundreds of fans wearing replica jerseys queued up for hours at the airport and the hotel where Messi was due to stay, with many providing livestreams on social media and some chanting his name as they hoped to catch a glimpse of him. Some contrasted his popularity with the dim view many have of the men's national team.