Argentine superstar Lionel Messi’s long-awaited return to India, after a magical maiden visit back in 2011, will be high on glitz but low on actual football, promising a spectacle that may not recapture the raw sporting frenzy that once shook the Salt Lake Stadium here.

His artistry in a competitive match will be missing this time. It would be quite unlike 2011 when more than 85,000 fans packed the stadium, some even perched on terrace edges, to watch Argentina edge Venezuela 1-0 in a FIFA friendly.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner is not scheduled to play serious football on the “G.O.A.T. India Tour 2025”. It is a fully promotional and commercially-curated event which began on Saturday here and will wind up on Monday in New Delhi. Yet, for a city that once worshipped Maradona, Pele, dazzled Dunga and embraced Ronaldinho, the arrival of Messi even without football is unmissable because Kolkata cannot ignore him.

The organisers have opened 78,000 seats at the Salt Lake Stadium with ticket prices going up to Rs 7,000 for his 45-minute appearance on Saturday morning. Messi will spend less than 72 hours in India but will traverse four metropolis — Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi — in what has increasingly begun to resemble a high-profile roadshow involving chief ministers, corporate heavyweights, Bollywood celebrities and even a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

India’s Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill, a self-confessed Messi admirer, is also expected to meet him after the Dharamshala T20I on December 14. Messi’s last appearance in India remains etched in memory when on September 3, 2011, he danced past defenders, mesmerised with his left-footed grace and triggered waves of ecstasy in a packed stadium.

Nothing but gimmicks, says former India midfielder

Not everyone is swept by the frenzy though, and former footballers feel “hurt and insulted” for not being invited. Former India and Mohun Bagan midfielder Gautam Sarkar, who famously man-marked Pele during the 1977 exhibition match, minced no words. “These are nothing but gimmicks. Messi is coming only to do a handshake. Pele had come here and actually played with us,” the 75-year-old said.

Ironically, Messi arrives at a time when Indian football is grappling with serious uncertainty. “Instead of bringing Messi, our focus should be on how to improve football in the country. We must give utmost priority to Indian football and bring back the glory of the past,” Sarkar said. He said former India defender Subrata Bhattacharya too felt “insulted”.

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