Lionel Messi's visit to India confirmed, Argentina to play friendly in Kerala

Lionel Messi finally won the trophy which had eluded him throughout his career, clinching the FIFA World Cup 2022 title in Qatar. Argentina defeated France in penalties, as Messi scripted history. The World Cup in Qatar saw Argentina and Messi receive plenty of support from India, especially from the people of Kerala.

Now it looks like Messi and Co. are set to visit the South Indian stage in the later half of 2025. Kerala's sports minister V Abdurahiman said in an event in Kozhikode, "For seven days from October 25 to November 2, Messi will be in Kerala. Apart from the friendly match, he will be on a public dias for twenty minutes to see you all."

But it could be misinformation from the Kerala sports minister as FIFA doesn't have any international window in the dates, mentioned by him. There are two windows available during that part of year, October 6 to 14 and November 10 to 18.

Messi is currently with Inter Miami at the MLS, in arguably the swansong phase of his career. During his glittering career, he has won eight Ballon d'Or awards, and has also been adjudged FIFA Best Player eight times. He is also the most decorated player in the history of professional football, having bagged 45 team trophies, consisting of twelve Big Five league trophies, four Champions Leagues, two Copa Americas and one World Cup.

He also has the record for most European Golden Shoes (6), most goals for a single club (672 with Barcelona), hat-tricks (36) and assists (192) in La Liga. He is also Argentina's all-time leading goalscorer and most-capped player. At the youth level, he won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship and a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics.

He became the youngest Argentine to play and score in a World Cup in 2006, and took over as national team captain in 2011, leading them to three consecutive finals (2014 World Cup, 2015 Copa America and Copa America Centenario), all of which they lost.