Hyderabad: Lionel Messi’s programme in Hyderabad was in stark contrast to the mayhem in Kolkata as the second leg of the GOAT India Tour ended on a positive note thanks to thorough preparations, sound planning, and discipline.
The City of Nizams showed how to pull off an event of this magnitude after Messi’s visit to the City of Joy descended into chaos due to poor crowd management and security lapses earlier Saturday.
The celebrated Argentine footballer mesmerised the Hyderabad crowd at a nearly-packed Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium as he showed off some of the skills that made him one of the greatest ever to play the sport.
Messi arrived in the city around 5:40m after a chaotic opening leg of his three-day four-city GOAT Tour 2025 in Kolkata and he was received at the Taj Falaknuma Palace by Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
Sporting a green colour crew neck half sleeve T-shirt, a black pant and a pair of sport shoes, the World Cup-winning Argentine captain entered the stadium to a deafening cheer of the crowd.
He seemed relaxed all through his one-hour stay at the stadium, in contrast to the anxious and stiff demeanour at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata some hours back.
“I am very happy to be in Hyderabad in the midst of all the love and affection shown by you all,” Messi said through a translator while addressing the crowd.
Messi and his Inter Miami team-mates Luiz Saurez and Rodrigo de Paul took part in a GOAT Cup penalty shootout, with Reddy also turning up in football attires, and conducted football clinics with children before leaving the stadium.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi joined the visiting trio of players and Reddy at the felicitation towards the end of the event, posing for photographs in front of the sponsorship hoardings.
Messi presented the GOAT Cup to the winning team of a 7-a-side exhibition match, Singareni RR 9, which was representing Reddy.
The CM presented a memento to Messi while Gandhi gave one to Saurez.
After reaching the stadium, Messi was seen looking around the photos hung at the walls and had conversations with the officials, waved to the crowd from behind a glass barrier in acknowledgment of their adulation.
Later, he showed his immaculate control of the ball to the great delight of the crowd, juggling the ball with his feet as he kicked around the ball with his Saurez and de Paul, as well as Reddy.
Messi took a tour of the stadium, waving to the crowd.
Earlier in the day, about 50,000 spectators, many of whom had paid Rs 4,000 to Rs 12,000 — and in some cases up to Rs 20,000 in the black market — watched helplessly as a swarm of politicians, VVIPs, security personnel, and assorted hangers more interested in selfies than crowd control surrounded Messi, leaving the fans at the Salt Lake Stadium angry.
The spectators started the mayhem by hurling bottles — banned items in an otherwise sporting venue. It was baffling how they were allowed to enter with these objects, which also included food packets. Chairs were then ripped out and thrown.
Fibreglass seats lay smashed across the pitch and the synthetic track.
Messi will reach Mumbai on Sunday for his third leg of the GOAT Tour 2025. He will wind up his visit on Monday in New Delhi where he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
PTI
