Messi-China controversy: Why are Chinese fans angry with Argentina’s World Cup winning captain?

The universally adored Argentine superstar Lionel Messi has always stayed away from controversy for most of his glittering career. Until Sunday, when Messi, Inter Miami and owner David Beckham were booed mercilessly in Hong Kong when the Argentine World Cup winner did not come off the bench due to an injury in a match against a local side. The anger turned into vitriol when a few days later Messi played 30 minutes in a match in Japan against Vissel Kobe.

According to Inter Miami head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino, Messi was deemed unfit to play in Sunday’s match in the Hong Kong friendly. This was the second match Messi missed after he pulled out of playing against Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia which Miami lost 6-0.

Lionel Messi’s official Weibo account had already apologized to the Chinese fans after not playing in the Hong Kong match. “Anyone who knows me knows that I always want to play… especially in these games where we travel so far and people are excited to see our games. Hopefully we can come back and play a game in Hong Kong,” the post read.

Global Times, China’s state-controlled mouthpiece lashed into Messi and Inter Miami accusing them of meting out a differential treatment towards Hong Kong.

“The match in Hong Kong became the only one in Messi’s six pre-season friendly matches on this trip where he was absent. The situation…has magnified these doubts and suspicions on the integrity of Inter Miami and Messi himself. Some mainland fans travelled 12 hours from Xinjiang to Hong Kong to see Messi with the disappointment of the government and fans “entirely understandable. The impact of this incident has far exceeded the realm of sports,” it wrote.

Sports lawmaker Kenneth Fok said the incident “sprinkled salt wounds” on