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FORT LAUDERDALE, 1 Nov: Lionel Messi evidently won\u2019t be playing in China this month after all.<\/p>\n
Inter Miami announced Wednesday that its planned trip to China for a pair of exhibition matches has been called off. The team announced the trip last month, with a pair of games originally scheduled for Nov. 5 and Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
It would have been at least the eighth time that Messi \u2014 the World Cup champion for Argentina and now an eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner, after receiving the annual award yet again earlier this week \u2014 played in China, and the total attendance for the two planned matches could have exceeded 100,000.<\/p>\n
Inter Miami said the reason was \u201cunforeseen circumstances.\u201d The tour promoter, NSN, said the decision to cancel was out of respect to Chinese officials following the death last week of the country\u2019s former second-ranking leader, Li Keqiang. He was China\u2019s top economic official for a decade.<\/p>\n
TyC Sports, a network in Argentina, reported Monday that the trip was called off. The team did not confirm that decision until Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tour promoter, NSN, has informed Inter Miami CF of the cancellation of its China Tour due to unforeseen circumstances in China,\u201d read Inter Miami\u2019s statement. \u201cInter Miami\u2019s ambition remains to expand its global reach by playing in front of incredible fans from across the globe; the Club will continue to explore future opportunities with NSN to achieve this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were clear logistical challenges with the trip, including a botched ticket launch in China and reports that one of the matches would be canceled. It would have been Inter Miami\u2019s first international tour and could have served as a warm-up of sorts before Messi is expected to play in two World Cup qualifying matches for Argentina later this month.<\/p>\n
Messi returned to the U.S. early Tuesday after winning the Ballon d\u2019Or and was with Inter Miami for a training session that morning. The team did not make the Major League Soccer playoffs and now has no games officially scheduled, though the ongoing training suggests Inter Miami may try to play an exhibition in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The team \u2014 which won Leagues Cup this year for its first-ever trophy, doing so shortly after Messi\u2019s ballyhooed signing with the club \u2014 hasn\u2019t publicly revealed plans for any other international tours in the future, but others are expected given Messi\u2019s enormous global popularity. He remains under contract to Inter Miami for the 2024 and 2025 MLS seasons, making between $50 million and $60 million annually.<\/p>\n
Messi played in China as recently as this past June, shortly after he stunned much of the soccer world by announcing that he would sign with Inter Miami. He scored barely one minute into a match for Argentina against Australia in Beijing on June 15.<\/p>\n
Messi also won Olympic gold in China, helping Argentina win the title at the Beijing Games in 2008. He and Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham have enormous followings in Asia, along with several endorsement deals in the region. (PTI)<\/p>\n
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FORT LAUDERDALE, 1 Nov: Lionel Messi evidently won\u2019t be playing in China this month after all. Inter Miami announced Wednesday that its planned trip to China for a pair of exhibition matches has been called off. The team announced the trip last month, with a pair of games originally scheduled for Nov. 5 and Nov. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-227564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}