David Beckham greets Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and their Inter Miami teammates after MLS club arrives in Hong Kong for latest leg of world tour
David Beckham was on hand to welcome Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and the rest of the Inter Miami roster after they touched down in Hong Kong looking to inject some life into a difficult preseason.
The MLS team is midway through a global tour which will see Messi and Co travel around 23,000 miles ahead of the 2024 season.
Tata Martino’s team touched down in the Far East on Friday morning and a video on Inter Miami’s social media showed Beckham welcoming the players into the locker room.
The team’s co-owner was captured shaking hands with every player and hugging the likes of Messi, Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.
Inter Miami faces a Hong Kong XI in a friendly on Sunday. It is the MLS team’s fifth game of a grueling preseason.
To prepare for the match, Messi and Co enjoyed an open training session on Saturday, with the stadium in Hong Kong awash with jerseys carrying the name of the World Cup winner.
Messi and Beckham even enjoyed a brief kickabout on the field with some local kids.
Inter Miami played in El Salvador and Dallas before two friendlies in Saudi Arabia. The second, against an Al-Nassr side missing Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane, ended in a humiliating 6-0 defeat.
Martino’s team still faces a trip to Japan to face Vissel Kobe and a home game against Messi’s former club – Newell’s Old Boys – before the MLS season-opener on February 21.
Messi started the game against Al-Nassr on the bench amid reports he went for an MRI scan on a possible injury beforehand.
However he came on in the 83rd minute, with the score already 6-0, and played the rest of the game while his old nemesis Ronaldo sat in the stands watching.
It remains to be seen how severe Messi’s injury is, but he was reportedly feeling some ‘discomfort’ in the aftermath of their friendly with Al-Hilal on Monday.
