The Messi Hong Kong football match incident is actually a microcosm of the Sino-US game and decoupling and breaking the chain.
On January 16, 2024, Messi was elected World Footballer of the Year 2023. On February 4, 2024, Messi was absent from the Hong Kong friendly match, and in the face of the enthusiastic fans, Messi did not play, explained, interacted, or apologized throughout the whole process, and refused to shake hands with the Hong Kong chief executive with his hands in his pockets, which is not like the behavior of a world footballer.
Messi neglected Hong Kong fans, although Messi shirked afterwards as the cause of injury, but 3 days later, Messi played vigorously in the friendly match in Japan, showing the attitude he should have towards the owner of the gold throughout the whole process, and at the same time ruled out the possibility of injury.
The Hong Kong Friendly is a contract signed between the Hong Kong organisers and Inter Miami, bypassing Messi's team. Messi, as an international football superstar, is far more famous than the Miami International team, and the Miami team can rely on Messi to make money in the game, and Messi is undoubtedly deeply dissatisfied with being bypassed this time.
And Hong Kong, in Messi's eyes, is nothing more than a small area of 7 million people.
In the eyes of Westerners, Chinese mainland and Hong Kong are separated, we are one country, two systems, and Westerners think that it is one country and one region. The ** incident that broke out a few years ago made Westerners think that the two were separated.
If it is in the face of China's large market of 1.4 billion people, no matter how dissatisfied Messi is, he can't afford to offend, and he must come up with a better market than February 7 in 1Japan, with a population of 200 million, plays football with a more enthusiastic attitude.
But Hong Kong has a population of only 7 million, even if the tickets for the Hong Kong football game are much higher than those for the Japanese football game, even if the number of fans in Hong Kong is much higher than that in the Japanese stadium, even if the enthusiasm in Hong Kong is much warmer than that in the Japanese stadium, even if the Hong Kong chief executive personally comes down to shake hands, Messi doesn't care, and the area with a population of 7 million exposes Messi's real dissatisfaction.
However, when Messi played in Europe in the past, based on the sportsmanship of Europe, Messi did not show a sluggish attitude towards the games of small countries and small regions.
On June 8, 2023, Messi joined Miami International Football Club in the United States. Messi wants to seek a way out for his retirement in the future, and developing in the United States is Messi's choice. Anti-China is the political consensus of the American elite, and if it wants to develop in the United States, it must be integrated into the mainstream of the United States. Then, in the friendly match in Hong Kong, Messi, who wants to integrate into the American high society after retiring, should have the attitude he should have. This time, the Hong Kong organizers signed a contract with the Miami team, and did not pull Messi's team, which found a self-righteous reason for Messi to snub Hong Kong.
Westerners originally thought that Hong Kong was separated from Chinese mainland, but they did not expect that Hong Kong was heart-to-heart with Chinese mainland. Messi's arrogance towards a region with a population of 7 million kicked the iron plate of a country with a population of 1.4 billion, and China blew up.
Only a complete and sincere apology to the fans of Hong Kong and Chinese mainland, and a solemn commitment to future matches, can Messi recover the significant losses caused by his rudeness.
However, in the context of the Sino-US game, will Messi do this?
**10,000 Fans Incentive Plan