For three hours on Sunday, the iconic cricket stadium here turned into a football coliseum. As is always the case on match days, Wankhede Stadium was blue, but today the shade was lighter, the one associated with Argentine footballers. Thousands in the stands wore No.10 — Sachin Tendulkar’s number in these parts. But tonight it was for another No.10 — the global sporting superstar Lionel Messi.
The first leg of Messi’s GOAT India Tour had descended into chaos in Kolkata on Saturday, with fans feeling cheated as most of them didn’t get to see the one-of-a-kind footballer. On Sunday, Mumbai got its Messi fill. The World Cup winner stepped onto the red carpet laid out for him at 5:51 pm, and his grand entry got the roof down. Beside him were his club teammates Rodrigo de Paul and Luis Suárez. But all eyes were on Messi as cameras kept flashing where the star ventured.
Shy as ever, the 5’7” icon smiled and waved. He would also enthusiastically participate in a kick-around with a group of boys and girls, who were part of the Project Mahadeva, an initiative by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The grassroots programme targets under-13 children and enrols them for a five-year scholarship programme that provides coaching and academic support. For the young footballers from the interiors of the state like Yavatmal, Gadchiroli, Nandurbar, Dharashiv and Chandrapur, it was a day they would remember for the rest of their lives.
Tendulkar underlined the importance of the moment. “I thank Leo for encouraging the youngsters here,” he said. “I hope football in India reaches heights that we aspire to.”
Even the fans in the stands had memories to carry home. Messi kicked a few footballs at them, drawing a standing ovation from the crowd. He also gifted his jersey to India’s football ace Sunil Chhetri, who recently retired from international football. That ovation turned a tad emotional when Tendulkar handed Messi an Indian cricket jersey with his name inscribed on the back while Messi returned the favour by gifting him a World Cup ball.
The Mumbai leg of the four-city tour was carefully choreographed with high police presence on the roads leading to the stadium as well as inside the premises. And on the field, there wasn’t any over-crowding around Messi. In Kolkata, the mismanagement when Messi did the lap of honour led to chaotic scenes at the Salt Lake Stadium.
“That event was hijacked by the politicians,” said Sunny Kumar, a Messi die-hard. The 19-year-old travelled from his home in Patna to Kolkata on Saturday to see Messi, spending Rs 10,000 for a ticket. Disappointed that he could not even “see him for a millisecond”, Kumar said he spent another Rs 50,000 on tickets for the Mumbai event. “I ended up spending Rs 2.5 lakh overall on flights, hotels, tickets… In Kolkata, all I could see was the backs of people who surrounded Messi. Today, I got to see him for more than an hour. So, all the money and energy feels worth it,” he said.
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Like Kumar, fans poured in from all over the country: Ballia to Bengaluru, Srinagar to Aurangabad, spending anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 10 lakh, lining up outside the stadium from noon.
As the hours crawled by, the chants grew louder and more rhythmic — Messi, Messi — rolling around the Wankhede and spilling onto the streets outside, as fans clung to the hope of a glimpse, a wave, a moment. It was only much later, after the sun had dipped and patience had been tested, that Messi finally arrived, the long vigil instantly forgotten as the stadium erupted the second he stepped into view.
“I have had some incredible moments here. Mumbai is a city of dreams and the number of dreams that have seen the finish line here at this venue…without your support, we would have never seen those golden moments in 2011,” Tendulkar said, referring to the World Cup triumph. “And today, having all three of them (Messi, Suarez and De Paul) here is indeed a golden moment for Mumbai, Mumbaikars and India.”
Messi didn’t speak. But he didn’t need words — the chants, the tears and the endless blue-and-white said everything.