New Delhi:Lionel Messi is preparing for a highly anticipated visit to India this weekend as part of his multi city GOAT Tour 2025. The football legend will land in Kolkata early on Saturday and then travel to Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi for a series of cultural, sporting and charity events.
Messi is expected to arrive in Kolkata at around 1.30 am on Saturday. He will stay at a hotel along the EM Bypass and take part in a sponsor meet and greet on Saturday morning. A seventy foot statue of Messi holding the World Cup trophy has been set up in Lake Town, but due to security restrictions the unveiling will be done virtually from his hotel rather than at the site. Kolkata is also planning a fusion food festival featuring a mix of Argentine and Bengali dishes to welcome the star.
Hyderabad has been added to the schedule after an earlier plan in Kerala was cancelled. Messi will take part in the GOAT Cup, a friendly football event at Uppal Stadium. Reports say he will stay at the historic Taj Falaknuma Palace. Fans in the city are expecting a large turnout as this will be Messi’s only public sporting event in south India during the tour.
Messi will then head to Mumbai for a charity fashion event that will also feature his former teammates Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul. The programme will include a ramp walk and an auction of one of Messi’s items from the 2022 World Cup. Proceeds will support charity projects. In the afternoon he is expected to attend a Padel Cup at the Cricket Club of India before heading to Wankhede Stadium for the main evening event.
The tour will conclude in New Delhi on Monday. Messi is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A celebrity football match and a youth felicitation programme for young Indian players returning from European tournaments are also part of the Delhi events.
To ensure that fans across the country can follow the tour, Sony Liv will stream major parts of the programme live. The visit has created excitement in all four cities and is being seen as a rare opportunity for football fans in India to witness one of the greatest players of the modern era.