How Emiliano Martinez and Ronaldinho helped in convincing Messi to travel to India in December

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Argentina goalkeeper Emi Martinez with Lionel Messi. (Reuters)

Argentina’s World Cup winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez had arrived in Kolkata about seven months after he won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and three months later Ronaldinho came calling. The exhibition tour of the two players was a big hit.

Before they left, Satadru Dutta, the man who convinced the two footballers to make the trip to Kolkata, requested them to put in a good word with Argentina football icon Lionel Messi. Messi is a longtime teammate of Martinez at the international level. Ronaldinho was Barcelona’s talisman when Messi had made his debut with Spanish giants in 2004 at the age of 17.

Messi is now on board. He is set to kick off his four-city tour in Kolkata on December 12. From Kolkata he will be in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and New Delhi. Dutta, who has played a role in bringing the likes of Pele and Maradona to Kolkata, is excited.

“The football world is a small circle,” Dutta tells The Indian Express. “When I got Emi Martinez and Ronaldinho to Kolkata, I told them that I am trying to bring Messi to India and your review will matter. If you can give a good review to his team and even Messi himself, it will help. Touchwood, I executed it in a neat and clean way, they gave a very good review to Messi,” Dutta said.

What followed was a chat with Messi’s father and agent, Jorge, in July last year in Miami, USA, where the Argentina captain currently plays for Inter Miami in the Major League Soccer (MLS). While Messi senior told Dutta that he likes the idea, it wasn’t going to be possible to do it in 2024. “I just said if it would be possible over the next one or two years, he said ‘I love the idea’,” Dutta said.

Lionel Messi after scoring Inter Milan’s second goal against Porto during Club World Cup Group A match. (AP)

The visit this year won’t be Messi’s first trip to India. That was made in 2011, when he played a friendly against Venezuela at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. That also happened to be Messi’s first match as Argentina captain. When Dutta met Messi in February this year, he showed him clips from that match, and photos of a 75-foot statue of Messi lifting the World Cup, which he had erected in a Durga Pooja pandal that Ronaldinho inaugurated in 2023. “He was touched by that,” Dutta said.

Multi-city tour

A multiple-city tour was the only way enough sponsors would come on board to make Messi’s trip feasible for the organisers.
“If it is not multiple cities, it won’t be financially viable,” Dutta said.

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After landing in Kolkata on December 12,the next day Messi will attend the unveiling of a statue of his followed by a ‘GOAT Concert’ and ‘GOAT Cup’, the venue of which is yet to be decided. The GOAT Cup will be a celebratory seven-a-side soft-touch football match, with Messi teaming up alongside Sourav Ganguly, Leander Paes, John Abraham and Bhaichung Bhutia. Tickets are likely to start at Rs 3,500 and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to felicitate Messi during the programme.

This will be followed by a flight to Ahmedabad on the evening of December 13, where Dutta says Messi will be attending a private event with some of his sponsors. Messi then moves to Mumbai on December 14. Messi will be in Delhi on December 15, where he will have another GOAT Concert at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Dutta also said that Messi will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We will seek an appointment from the Prime Minister,” Dutta said.