Nine News
At 19:28 on February 7, Beijing time, Messi, who had not played for the whole time during the Hong Kong trip due to injury, stepped on the home turf of the Kobe Victory ship as a substitute player during the trip to Japan just two days later.
Two minutes later, Mr. Guo, who had previously gone to Hong Kong to watch the game, intercepted the picture of Messi on the field in the circle of friends, and asked two "why!" in the accompanying text to express his dissatisfaction with the player.
The Messi fan went to Beijing to watch Messi's game as early as June last year, when the Argentine national team went to China, and if it weren't for the cancellation of another trip to Chengdu in the same year, he would have met his idol twice in a year. To his delight, on December 8 last year, Miami International officially announced that it would start a trip to Hong Kong, and with the help of several friends to grab tickets, he successfully grabbed tickets for the 1,580 Hong Kong dollar ticket stall. "It was a very happy day that I could finally see Messi again. ”
However, the trip to Hong Kong did not go as smoothly as expected. On the way from Zhengzhou to Hong Kong on February 2, his flight was delayed due to weather and did not land until 3:30 a.m.
In Mr. Guo's words, as long as he has the opportunity to watch Messi play, he will first think about how to buy a ticket, and other factors will be a later story. For example, his friend once persuaded him to give up this trip on the grounds that the Spring Festival was about to be celebrated, but he was still unmoved, but felt that watching a Messi game before the Spring Festival was a more satisfying thing, and he could also celebrate the New Year happily.
Foreign fans holding "Where is Messi" after the Hong Kong game. Photo / provided by the interviewee
The night before watching the game, Mr. Guo was too excited to sleep well, and the moment he stepped into the Hong Kong Stadium, the lively atmosphere reminded him of the fond memories of watching Messi play at the Gongti site. However, the perfection of this moment was shattered by the sudden news, two minutes before the start of the game, he learned through the football information website that Messi will not start.
"At that time, everyone's mentality was actually good, because we all knew that it was just a commercial game, Messi may not be well, he can just come up and play for a while." During the time when Messi was not playing, Mr. Guo also jokingly asked the two foreign fans around him whether Messi would play, and got a very positive response from the other party: "of course!"
The opening whistle of the second half blew and the game slowly entered fifty minutes, then sixty minutes, and Messi still showed no signs of warming up. At that time, Mr. Guo was still expecting mentally, he heard the fans in the stadium start to shout Messi's name one after another, and as the last 20 minutes came, the fans shouted "Leo" more affectionately, but to no avail.
A sense of loss came over him, and he looked at Messi, who had not yet changed into his game uniform and did not even wear his shoes, only to see the star facing the shouts of the fans in the stadium, bowing his head unmoved, and there was no other feedback.
Messi, who still did not change his shirt and shoes in the second half. Photo / provided by the interviewee
Mr. Guo, who loves to play football on weekdays, knows that if Messi wants to play in the last 20 minutes, he will have to start warming up at this time at the latest, and there are signs that his idol will sit on the bench all over the field.
The fans around and far away can no longer hide their disappointment, bursts of "return (refund)" roars instead of enthusiastic shouts, Hong Kong Stars and Miami International team when the ball is controlled, the fans cheers and boos are the most direct portrayal of their dissatisfaction.
After the game, Mr. Guo, who left the stadium, saw a foreign fan holding a handwritten card outside the stadium, with tears in his eyes, and the sign read: "Where is messi?"
After Messi arrived in Japan with the team, Miami International issued an announcement saying that Messi did not appear during the trip to Hong Kong due to health problems. And Mr. Guo said that until the opening, he had never heard the news that Messi could not play.
On the evening of February 7, Messi came on as a substitute for half an hour during the trip to Japan, and Mr. Kwok, who had returned from Hong Kong, was also watching the live broadcast of the game, and this time, he was not to appreciate the idol's skills. "Seeing Messi on the field, I feel the imbalance in my heart to the extreme, why can't I see him playing live when Hong Kong tickets are more expensive than Japan, and I am in a mixed mood now. ”
What made him even more angry was that unlike when he was in Hong Kong waiting for Messi to warm up, he saw through the live broadcast that Messi had changed his jersey early and started to warm up, and he realized that Messi was about to play, "At that time, my heart was already cold." ”
Looking back on this unpleasant journey, Mr. Guo bluntly said that he was very tired. Aside from financial expenses, he has invested 100% of his energy and time in this trip to Hong Kong, and said that he seems to have no reason to like Messi anymore.
Messi came off the bench in the 60th minute of his trip to Japan. Picture/Screenshot of live broadcast
The incident also caused Messi himself to be slammed by domestic fans on social media, to which Mr. Guo said that this time it was difficult for him to defend his idol, he believes that the team and his own approach must be inappropriate, and some of the problems caused by this incident have gone beyond football itself.
In addition, he also made a point of mentioning the importance that the Hong Kong side attaches to this match. "I really felt the efforts of Hong Kong at the scene, and before the opening ceremony, many celebrities and business figures came to cheer and support them, and the result was in exchange for such a response, I would like to ask Miami International, is it really worthy of the local people and the fans?"
According to the plan, the Argentine national team will go to Hangzhou in March for a friendly match, and Mr. Guo, who has always had to chase the game, said lightly after this experience, I will not go to Hangzhou, and I may not go to the future games. "A Messi who was once so humble in people's hearts, loved football so much, and did his best in so many games, suddenly seemed to be taken away, this kind of transformation is unacceptable. Mr. Guo said.
Source: Jiupai News
Reporter: Dong Zineng
Editor: Wu Di