Chinese police detains Lionel Messi at Beijing International over passport issues
Lionel Messi got detained by Chinese polices officers for not having his Chinese passport.
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Lione Messi was detained by Chinese police. (Image credits via Twitter)
On June 10, World Cup winner Lionel Messi was detained by Chinese police officers at the Beijing airport for having his Spanish passport rather than his Argentine one. The 35-year-old player visited China to lead his team for an international friendly against Australia on Thursday, June 15, at the Wokers’ Stadium which is located in Beijing.
Messi arrived in China in his private jet with his bodyguard and some friends including his Argentine teammate, Angel di Maria. However, after landing Messi was stopped by the Chinese police for having his Spanish passport.
A video of Lionel Messi surrounded by Chinese police officers has gone viral on the internet. In the video, it was seen that the Argentine clutched his passport while talking to the police officer about the issue.
It was reported that Messi believed he could travel to Taiwan on his Spanish passport so he thought it would be valid for China also. The player was also recorded saying, “Is Taiwan, not China?” which was a little controversial.
The Chinese police got confused because he had a Spanish passport instead of his Argentine one. It was reported that Messi was delayed for two hours before the VISA was granted. It was the Argentine’s seventh trip to China the player previously visited the country for the 2008 Olympics, where he won a gold medal for Argentina.
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Lionel Messi’s actual reason behind signing Inter Miami
Many fans mocked Lionel Messi for choosing Inter-Miami over Barcelona. Especially the fans of the Catalan club were not happy with the Argentine’s decision to play for Inter Miami. Fans mocked Messi for choosing money over his career. But the World Cup winner in his recent interview gave the actual reason for deciding to make a move to the United States over accepting the billion-dollar offer from Saudi Arabia.
“If it had been a question of money, I would have gone to [Saudi] Arabia or another place. The truth is that my decision was for another reason and not because of money,” The Argentine told this in an interview.
“It was about living in the United States, in a different way and enjoying day to day much more but with the same responsibility of wanting to win and always doing things well, but with more peace of mind,” added Messi.
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