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It won't be a Messi All-Star match: Erick
Erick said that the friendly match between the Indonesian and Argentinian teams would be a fixture in world soccer governing body FIFA's calendar and was aimed at improving the quality of the national team.
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Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) chairman Erick Thohir speaks to journalists in this file photo. (AFP/Adek Berry)
I
ndonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) chairman Erick Thohir has called on soccer fans in the country to watch the planned match between Indonesia and Argentina, despite the expected absence of superstar Lionel Messi.
Erick said that the friendly match between the Indonesian and Argentinian teams would be a fixture in world soccer governing body FIFA's calendar and was aimed at improving the quality of the national team.
"This will be a FIFA match day and we're looking for points. This will not be a contest between an Indonesian team against a Messi All-Star team," Erick told reporters on Tuesday.
Erick was responding to the suggestion that Messi will not join the match against Indonesia next week after media reports said that the soccer superstar would fly to the United States to join Major League Soccer side Inter Miami as a free agent soon after his stint in Beijing for a match against Australia.
Local soccer fans have taken to social media to complain about Messi's possible absence and that they would return the tickets they had purchased for next week's game.
Messi, who lifted the World Cup in Qatar in December and is widely considered to be one of the game's all-time greats, confirmed this week he would leave French champion Paris St Germain for the US league.
Messi's arrival in Beijing on Saturday was announced in a post on the organizer International Football Invitation's official Weibo social media site, with a video of players stepping off a plane, ahead of Thursday's Argentina-Australia match in the recently rebuilt Workers' Stadium.
