People have rushed to snap up more than 60,000 tickets for
the sell-out Monday clash between Indonesia and World Cup winners Argentina
after Messi’s face was plastered across advertising for the event.
But following days of speculation, fans in the football-mad
country received bad news on Thursday that their hero would not play.
“I’m feeling sad and disappointed, mixed emotions,”
31-year-old shop owner Surya Wijaya Ang told AFP from the remote island of
Banda Neira in the eastern province of Maluku.
“This was the biggest chance for me to see Messi play in
person.”
On Thursday, the Argentina side beat Australia in another
friendly in the Chinese capital Beijing, with head coach Lionel Scaloni
confirming that Messi would not make the Indonesian leg of their Asian tour.
Having become a major fan of Messi during the star’s time at
Barcelona, Ang has amassed a collection of around 200 jerseys adorned with his
name.
He is planning to take a boat to the eastern Indonesian city
of Ambon before catching a four-hour flight to Jakarta to attend the match.
Ang sold seven shirts from his wider jersey collection to
pay for the 1.2 million rupiah ($80) match ticket, a steep price in the
lower-middle-income country.
‘Marketing strategy’
The Messi fanatic is aggrieved and said organisers had
seemingly promised an appearance by the superstar.
“Messi is an icon and you can say that 90 percent of the
tickets were sold because of Messi,” he said.
“This was a marketing strategy for them.”
Other Indonesians took to social media to convey
disappointment, with one offering to sell two tickets “because Messi is not
coming”.
A video posted on Twitter showed a fan singing a guitar
ballad with the lyrics: “Why don’t you come to Indonesia? Why you don’t come,
oh Mr Messi?”
Another wrote: “This is the end of my idolising him… we
won’t beg him to come.”
Indonesian football has been enduring a year of crises with
a deadly stadium crush and losing the rights to host the FIFA Under-20 World
Cup.
Despite having his Messi hopes dashed, Ang said he would
travel to the capital for the game anyway.
“I’ve come this far, so I will still be going,” he said.
“Maybe I will see Lionel Scaloni,” he added, laughing.
AFP