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Even armed with his inimitable charm, David Beckham’s speech couldn’t be heard over the 15,000 or so booing fans left in the Hong Kong Stadium.
Banners around the ground read “Refund, refund, refund”.
This was all because Lionel Messi had a hip adductor injury, ruling him out of Inter Miami’s pre-season friendly in Hong Kong.
Always the bridesmaid, even Luis Suarez couldn’t make an appearance as a compensatory offering.
The South China Morning Post described Messi’s no-show as “the greatest let-down of all time”. Apparently physical incapacity is no longer a reason to not play football.
The 40,000-seater stadium had only sold out, with seats going for £100 a head, because Messi was in town.
To remove Messi from the equation was to remove the point of this all, if there was one to start with.
According to the Hong Kong government, the major sports events committee (MSEC) provided grants of HK$16m (£1.5m) to organisers Tatler Asia for the event.
“Regarding Messi not playing the match today, the government, as well as all football fans, are extremely disappointed about the organisers’ arrangement. The organiser owes all football fans an explanation,” the statement said.
“The MSEC will take follow-up actions with the organiser according to the terms and conditions, which includes reducing the amount of funding as a result of Messi not playing the match.”
The Hong Kong fiasco is just the next disastrous leg on Messi’s magical mystery tour. This started two weeks and 15,000km away, with a 0-0 snoozefest against the El Salvador national team. Inter Miami could only muster two shots on target to challenge a goalkeeper who had never left his home country.
Miami then lost 1-0 to FC Dallas, in front of 32,000 people in the 92,000-capacity Cotton Bowl. The visitors had three shots on target that time.
Then to Riyadh, and the unexpected highlight of the tour. Miami only managed three shots on target again, but scored three goals in a 4-3 loss to Aleksandr Mitrovic’s Al-Hilal – with Messi even scoring a penalty.
This was supposed to be the penultimate waltz to the impending last dance, the final meeting between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, before the latter pulled out with a calf injury.
And so, not for the first or last time in this seven-game, 37,000km trip: disappointment. Marca called it “Last Dance Disaster”. Messi played a sedate seven minutes off the bench as Al-Nassr won 6-0, with Aymeric Laporte scoring from the half-way line.
But these seven minutes were enough to further irritate his hip adductor issue, beginning the sequence of events leading to Beckham’s vilification in Hong Kong.
Miami ran out 4-1 winners, but none of their “big four” – Messi, Suarez, Sergio Busquets or Jordi Alba – started the game, though the latter duo did come on as substitutes in the 62nd minute.
Messi gave a press conference to apologise for his absence, pointing out he had conducted an open training session and met fans while still being injured. He also said: “I’m a little tired from this whole tour, I want to finish the last match and go home.”
The final game of the Asian leg is against Andres Iniesta’s former side Vissel Kobe, before returning to Miami to host Messi’s childhood club Newell’s Old Boys. Their season then begins proper against Real Salt Lake on 22 February.
Here’s the thing – Inter Miami aren’t very good. They finished 27th out of 29 teams in Major League Soccer last season and went seven competitive games without a win to end the campaign.
For all the new hype, the sell-out nights at the DRV PNK Stadium and even their first trophy – the Leagues Cup – they’re still a barely functional side even by MLS standards. Former Barcelona boss Gerardo Martino has made them no better than they were under Phil Neville.
Beckham and co will be hoping Inter Miami’s history will be split, as their Wikipedia page is, into “early years (2020-23)” and “Lionel Messi era (2023-present)”. Currently, there is no evidence that will be anything other than a cosmetic change. This may not be the last time Beckham gets booed.
