Unlike Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, here’s how brand David Beckham made MLS go big on Lionel Messi

“All petulant in pink like some thuggish flamingo,” read the pages of South China Morning Post. There was no hiding it: China was fuming at Lionel Messi.

Nearly 40,000 had thronged to the Hong Kong Stadium to watch him play, how could he ditch them at the last second? Speculation ran amok. ‘Was it a snub to mainland China from the world’s most popular footballer?’ Regina Ip, member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, went as far as suggesting, “Messi should never be allowed to return to Hong Kong”, calling the Argentine a ‘hypocrite’.

An attempt was made to douse the political flames as Messi took to China’s biggest social media app to address the aforementioned claims as ‘false’. But the damage was done and strange as it may sound, for his club – Inter Miami – it was one of the many wins to brag about since his arrival last summer.

Keep aside a fan’s perspective on sport, for once, and pay heed to the most famous gospel of the 19th century American showman P.T Barnum: “There is no such thing as negative publicity.”

Messi posted a 140-second video on Weibo, explaining why he didn’t play in HK. He ruled out political reason, his attitude seemed sincere. Now I personally accept his explanation.

Of course, his image in HK & the mainland will be hard to repair. It’s the price he needs to bear. pic.twitter.com/2EFumSprsM

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) February 19, 2024

Despite, or perhaps because of, the reaction from their trip to Hong Kong, the Major League Soccer (MLS) side which finished second to bottom in the Eastern Conference standings last season and couldn’t seem to buy a win in this year’s pre-season, has attracted unprecedented levels of attention over the last year. Not just in their short six-year history but