<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi and David Beckham were booed on Sunday after the Argentina superstar sat out Inter Miami\u2019s pre-season friendly in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
The World Cup-winning captain, who has a hamstring strain, stayed rooted to the bench throughout the 4-1 friendly win against a Hong Kong select XI.<\/p>\n
It brought a show of anger from the near-capacity crowd of 38,323 who had paid upwards of 1,000 Hong Kong dollars ($125) to see their hero, and in many cases five times that amount.<\/p>\n
Halfway through the second-half, chants of \u201cWe want Messi\u201d rose around the Hong Kong Stadium from fans desperate to see the greatest footballer of his generation in the much-hyped exhibition game.<\/p>\n
The booing became louder during the last 10 minutes when it became clear that the eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner would not make even the briefest of cameos.<\/p>\n
The jeers rose to a crescendo at the final whistle and Miami co-owner Beckham was drowned out by booing as he tried to thank the crowd for \u201ctheir incredible support\u201d while fans signalled their anger with thumbs-down gestures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really disappointed,\u201d fan Jonathan Wong told AFP<\/em>. \u201cEveryone is here to see Messi, so I feel a bit cheated.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout him it\u2019s just like another regular Hong Kong Premier League match, where a ticket only costs HK$80 ($11). This time we paid HK$5,000 ($625).\u201d<\/p>\n Miami coach Gerardo Martino said the club\u2019s medical team had taken the decision after an assessment on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand the disappointment of the fans for the absence of Leo (Messi),\u201d Martino told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand a lot of fans are very disappointed and we ask for their forgiveness.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wish we could have sent Leo on for at least a while but the risk was too big.\u201d<\/p>\n The 36-year-old Messi played just six minutes in Miami\u2019s last match, in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, and now faces a race against time to be fit for the new MLS season that starts on February 21.<\/p>\n It was a bitter end to days of Hong Kong \u201cMessi mania\u201d.<\/p>\n Tens of thousands turned up just to watch him train on Saturday, when he did little more than jog and stretch.<\/p>\n The team hotel was besieged by hundreds of fans trying to glimpse their hero, and a traditional junk boat was cruising around Victoria harbour with Messi\u2019s face plastered across its sails.<\/p>\n Messi shirts had been flying off the shelves after tickets for the match sold out in an hour when they went on sale in December.<\/p>\n Echoing the fans\u2019 anger, the Hong Kong government said they could withdraw their HK$16 million ($2m) funding to the organisers that helped bring Inter Miami to the city.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government, as well as all football fans, are extremely disappointed,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe organiser owes all football fans an explanation,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n Miami\u2019s starting line-up featured none of their other former Barcelona stars, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba or Luis Suarez.<\/p>\n Robert Taylor opened the scoring for the MLS side in the 40th minute with a delightful right-foot curling shot from the left-hand edge of the box.<\/p>\n Two minutes later Hong Kong\u2019s Henri Anier laced a left-foot finish home to make it 1-1.<\/p>\n Miami regained the lead after half-time when Lawson Sunderland found the target from close range and Leonardo Campana increased the lead in the 56th minute.<\/p>\n Busquets and Alba finally made an appearance from the bench after 62 minutes to a smattering of cheers but Suarez was another no-show.<\/p>\n Ryan Sailor rounded off the scoring for Miami in the 85th minute with a glancing header.<\/p>\n It was Miami\u2019s first win in five matches on their globe-trotting pre-season tour, which heads to Japan for a friendly against Vissel Kobe on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lionel Messi and David Beckham were booed on Sunday after the Argentina superstar sat out Inter Miami\u2019s pre-season friendly in Hong Kong. The World Cup-winning captain, who has a hamstring strain, stayed rooted to the bench throughout the 4-1 friendly win against a Hong Kong select XI. It brought a show of anger from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/042104335b0be9b.png?r=210609","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\tBitter end to \u2018Messi mania\u2019<\/h2>\n