Chinese fan who hugged Messi during football match in Beijing has been detained
The young pitch invader is chased by security officials during a soccer match between Argentina and Australia at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing
By Martha Zhou, Steven Jiang and Chris Lau, CNN
Beijing (CNN) — A Chinese football fan who stormed the pitch and hugged Lionel Messi during a friendly match between Australia and Argentina in Beijing on Thursday has been placed under “administrative detention,” according to police in the Chinese capital.
The fan, who is 18 years old and identified by the police as “Di,” has also been banned from entering sports venues as a spectator for similar games for 12 months.
Beijing Police did not specify how long “Di” would remain in detention, but did say that the fan has apologized for this behavior and accepted his punishment.
Videos that went viral on Chinese social media show the young fan leaping from the stands before sprinting toward Messi – who like him was wearing the number 10 jersey – and giving him a hug. The clips show Messi, who appears initially shocked, stretching out his arms and hugging the fan back.
With the crowd cheering, three security guards then give chase, the first of them falling over as the young fan evaded his grasp. The fan then raised his hands as he outsprinted the other two guards and high-fived Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. It is only after the fan eventually tripped up himself that security finally caught up to him and took him back to the stands, where he was greeted like a hero.
For many onlookers, the brief interlude was one of the most entertaining moments of an event that has drawn widespread interest across China since the 35-year-old Messi arrived in Beijing on Saturday.
On Chinese social media, many users – football fans or otherwise – celebrated the young fan’s sprint across the grass pitch as a liberating moment.
For some, his daring dash through security lines has become a symbol of freedom and youthful vitality in a society still reeling from the trauma of three years of Covid restrictions and feeling the squeeze of a slowing economy.
“This kind of running is exactly what is lacking in the increasingly desolate souls of the Chinese people,” says the headline of a widely circulated commentary on WeChat, which was later censored.
But even before the fan’s antics, interest in the event had been sky high.
Tickets to the match at the 68,000-capacity Workers’ Stadium, which cost up to $4,800 yuan ($670), sold out within 20 minutes, according to Chinese state media Global Times, while touts advertised tickets online for multiple times their face value.
Messi and his teammates were temporarily “trapped” in their Beijing hotel at the weekend after large numbers of fans gathered outside, Chinese state media reported.
So great has been the interest that local police cautioned members of the public to be on guard for scammers trying to sell fake tickets or bogus chances to meet the superstar.
Several unofficial social media accounts have claimed to be offering VIP stadium passes, front-row seats and autographed jerseys, often at widely inflated prices, while a viral – and bogus – ad claimed to be offering dinner opportunities with Messi at 300,000 yuan ($42,000) per person.
Beijing’s public security bureau debunked the advert on its official Weibo account, joking, “If you can be scammed of 300,000 yuan, then our police will raise a glass to you.”
On the pitch, Argentina eventually triumphed 2-0, though it maybe for other reasons that the game will be most remembered.
In a series of clips posted online after the game the fan, who claimed to be under 18 years of age, apologized to his hero for his “bad behaviour.”
“Messi, I’m sorry… I’m really sorry to meet you this way. I really wanted your autograph, but they were chasing me, so I didn’t ask for it,” he said.
But he was less apologetic to the security guards he left flailing in his wake.
“I also hope to use my negative case to tell the security personnel that your security work is not competent and gave me such an opportunity,” he said, urging the authorities to step up their game before the Chinese capital hosts its next international sports event.
A Chinese state media outlet weighed in, saying in an editorial that while the fan’s passion was understandable, it did not endorse his behavior, adding that it would disrupt matches and endanger safety.
Argentina will next travel to Jakarta for a friendly against Indonesia on June 19.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Andrew McNicol, Candice Zhu and Sophie Jeong contributed to this article.
