As it turned out, even world-class athletes can have visa problems. An example of this was the striker of the Argentina national team Lionel Messi. Upon arrival at the Beijing airport, the striker had to talk with representatives of the migration service.
“The captain and world champion was detained at the airport due to problems with his passport. After a long wait, Messi was able to join the team, Rodrigo De Paul did not leave him for a second,” according to Twitter account Rosario3.com.
😳El capitán y campeón del mundo fue demorado en el aeropuerto por problemas con su pasaporte. Luego de una larga espera, Messi y Rodrigo De Paul, que no se separó ni un segundo de su lado, pudieron unirse al resto.https://t.co/DG2HtGQbOE#rosario3 pic.twitter.com/ktVz8o4diF
— Rosario3.com (@Rosariotres) June 10, 2023
As it turned out later, Lionel was poorly prepared for the trip and forgot to complete the paperwork.
“We express our gratitude to the migration officials at Beijing International Airport for their flexibility and efficiency. Lionel Messi arrived on a Spanish passport, but without a visa. He had to wait two hours until the migration service issued him a visa as a special and urgent matter,” shared Chinese Consul General in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) Wang Jialei.
Felicitaciones al personal de migración en el aeropuerto internacional de #Beijing por su flexibilidad y eficiencia. Leonel #Messi llegó con su pasaporte de España, pero sin visa. Tuvo que esperar dos horas hasta que la migración le otorgó una visa como caso especial y urgente. pic.twitter.com/4PLTkmRBQl
— Wang Jialei 王家雷 (@WangJialei4) June 10, 2023
On June 15, the Argentine team will play a friendly match against Australia. The game will be held at the Beijing National Stadium, which has a capacity of 68,000 seats.
It is worth noting that the person of Messi in China has a special status. Tickets for the match featuring the star sold out very quickly, despite being priced between 580 and 4,200 yuan.
“The fascination with Messi’s personality is so great that dozens of sellers on the Taobao online shopping platform offer to resell tickets for up to 18,000 yuan.
China has anti-resale measures in place, including requiring ID cards to enter the stadium, but buyers may not be deterred by this,” Diario Sport reported.