Lionel Messi’s tour of India got off to a chaotic start on Saturday, when fans ripped seats from the stands and hurled them onto the pitch after the Argentina and Inter Miami forward made only a brief appearance at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium, according to the ANI news agency.
Messi is in India as part of a tour that includes appearances at concerts, youth football clinics, a padel tournament and the launch of charitable initiatives, with events scheduled in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi.
According to Indian media reports, the 2022 World Cup winner walked onto the pitch to greet supporters but was quickly surrounded by a large entourage and left just 20 minutes after arriving.
Footage released by ANI showed fans throwing torn-out seats and other objects onto the field and the running track, while several people who had climbed the perimeter fence also began hurling items.
“Only leaders and actors were around Messi … why were we even called?” one supporter told ANI. “We paid 12,000 rupees ($132.51) for a ticket, but we couldn’t even see his face.”
Organizers of Messi’s India tour did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kolkata is the capital of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, which, along with Kerala and Goa, has long had a strong football culture in a country otherwise dominated by cricket.
The Argentine great Diego Maradona visited Kolkata twice and, in 2017, unveiled a statue of himself holding the World Cup in front of thousands of fans.
Messi, who played a friendly at Salt Lake Stadium in 2011 in which Argentina beat Venezuela 1–0, virtually inaugurated a 69-foot statue of himself in the city last Saturday.