CNN Indonesia
Wednesday, 31 May 2023 06:57 WIB
Lionel Messi once defended the Argentina national team against Hong Kong in 2014. (AFP/JUAN MABROMATA)
Jakarta, CNNIndonesia —
Lionel Messi and the Argentina national team was paid 30 million Hong Kong dollars or the equivalent of IDR 57.3 billion to play for 90 minutes in 2014.
The Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) has to pay for such a large amount of money. This is done for the sake of entertaining football lovers there.
Argentina toured Asia during the October 2014 international break. The Tango team visited Dalian, China to play Brazil and Hong Kong.
Specifically to face the Hong Kong national team at the Hong Kong Stadium, 14 October 2014, according to the South China Morning report, the HKFA had to spend 30 million Hong Kong dollars (around Rp. 57.3 billion) to watch the Argentine stars.
At that time, La Albiceleste stars who came to Hong Kong included: Gonzalo Higuain, Javier Pastore, Ever Banega, Nicolas Otamendi, Angel Di Maria, Javier Mascherano, Erik Lamela, Pablo Zabaleta, Lionel Messi, to Sergio Aguero.
However, for Sergio Romero, who became Argentina’s number one goalkeeper, Marcos Rojo, Martin Demichelis, Lamela and Aguero were not played by coach Gerardo Martino against Hong Kong.
Lionel Messi, who captained the Argentina national team, only played for 30 minutes in the second half. Luckily the audience at the Hong Kong Stadium were entertained by the two goals scored by Messi for Argentina’s 7-0 win.
The news stated that, even though he only played for half an hour, Lionel Messi was still in the stadium’s public spotlight.
For that reason too South China Morning Post consider, paying Argentina is the same as paying Lionel Messi. It’s no wonder that the fee paid by the HKFA to witness Messi’s miraculous action is 1 million Hong Kong dollars, or around IDR 1.9 billion.
(sry/jal)
