Argentine famous person Lionel Messi arrived in Beijing on Saturday for a pleasant match earlier than leaving a storied European profession to affix Main League Soccer facet Inter Miami as a free agent.

His arrival was introduced in a put up on the organizer Worldwide Soccer Invitation’s official Weibo social media website with a video of gamers stepping off a aircraft, forward of Thursday’s Argentina-Australia match within the Chinese language capital’s just lately rebuilt Staff’ Stadium.

Messi, who lifted the World Cup in Qatar in December and is broadly thought-about to be one of many recreation’s all-time greats, confirmed this week he’ll depart French champions Paris St Germain for the U.S. league.

That is the Argentina captain’s seventh go to to China and his first since 2017.

He has obtained a fervent welcome on every of his earlier visits to China, which has an enormous soccer fan base regardless of the struggles of the lads’s nationwide staff, who’ve performed on the World Cup solely as soon as.

Australia and Argentina final met on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar within the spherical of 16, the place Messi was among the many scorers as his staff gained 2-1.