Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami will tour China in November, the MLS club confirm

Two matches announced, with Inter set to visit Qingdao and Chengdu on November 5 and 8

Tour coincides with MLS playoffs, which will not involve Miami after their poor start to the season before signing Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba

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Lionel Messi’s American club Inter Miami have confirmed they are to play in China. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Published: 5:22pm, 16 Oct 2023Updated: 5:25pm, 16 Oct 2023

Lionel Messi is going back to China, after Inter Miami took advantage of not making the Major League Soccer playoffs by signing a deal to play two exhibitions there next month.

Inter are to play friendlies against two Chinese Super League teams: Qingdao Hainiu on November 5, then Chengdu Rongcheng three days later. Both clubs’ stadiums can hold between 50,000 and 60,000 fans.

Those dates coincide with the first round of the MLS playoffs, which will not involve Miami after they were eliminated from contention this month.

The announcement of the rumoured deal did not mention Messi or any other player, although it would be surprising if Chinese officials agreed to the games without some sort of guarantee that the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner and the team’s other best-known stars – such as Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba – would make the trip if physically able.

Lionel Messi played in Beijing in June when Argentina faced Australia in a friendly. Photo: Getty Images

If Messi – who led Argentina to the World Cup title last year – plays, it will be at least the eighth time he has travelled to China for exhibitions for club or country since 2005.

Tickets for all previous Messi appearances have sold at a wild pace in China, underlining its massive football following even without much global success by its men’s national team. China’s women made the World Cup final in 1999, but were knocked out early in this year’s tournament.

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