He captain of the Argentine national team, Lionel Messiarrived in the country this Monday morning to join the concentration with a view to the friendlies against Panama and Curaçao, the first since the conquest of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
The star from Rosario landed after 10:15 a.m. at the Ezeiza international airport on a private flight with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their children Thiago, Ciro and Mateo.
Messi arrived in Argentina
The Messi family boarded a van on the track that transported them to an office to carry out the immigration procedures and from there number 10, together with personnel from the Argentine Football Association (AFA), went to the Julio Humberto Grondona property.
The captain of the National Team, Ballon d’Or in Qatar 2022 and winner of the last FIFA The Best award, was the eighth footballer to arrive in the country. On Sunday Enzo Fernández, Nicolás Tagliafico, Nicolás Otamendi and Rodrigo De Paul did it and this Monday, earlier, Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez, Emiliano Buendía and Thiago Almada landed.
During the course of the day, the bulk of the squad will arrive on a charter flight from Madrid.
MESSI IS ALREADY IN ARGENTINA! 💙🤍
The captain has just landed in the country to play the friendlies with the National Team and experience the champions party with the fans. pic.twitter.com/wLHxkMAKl6
— TyC Sports (@TyCSports) March 20, 2023
The first training session for the National Team is scheduled for this afternoon at 5:00 p.m.
Scaloni will give a press conference tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., prior to a new practice.
The match with Panama will be played on Thursday from 8:30 p.m. at the Monumental stadium with seats sold out, after the fervor registered last Thursday in the sales system to which more than 1.5 million users entered in search of some of the 63,000 tickets made available. Another 20,000, it is estimated, were reserved for protocol income and commercial commitments.
The second commitment of the “Scaloneta” will be on Tuesday 28 against Curacao at the Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades in Santiago del Estero, which expanded its capacity from 30,000 to 42,000 locations with the removal of seats in different sectors. Tickets for that presentation have not yet been released.
Meanwhile, the Government ordered today that both parties be broadcast freely and free of charge by Public Television as it is considered “content of relevant interest.”
Argentina will face the two friendlies with a squad of 34 players, after Alejandro Gómez (Sevilla) and Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) were absent due to injury.
Papu Gómez will not be present
The “Papu” will be the only one of the world champions who will not be present at the festivities for not receiving the authorization from his club in the middle of the recovery stage of an intervention on his left foot that was carried out on February 10.
The players who will attend Lionel Scaloni’s call-up
Goalkeepers: Martínez (Aston Villa), Gerónimo Rulli (Villarreal) and Franco Armani (River).
Defenders: Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid), Gonzalo Montiel (Sevilla), Cristian Romero (Tottenham), Germán Pezzella (Betis), Otamendi (Benfica), Lisandro Martínez (Manchester United), Marcos Acuña (Sevilla), Juan Foyth (Villarreal) ), Lautaro Blanco (Elche), Nehuén Pérez (Udinese) and Tagliafico.
Midfielders: De Paul (Atletico Madrid), Leandro Paredes (Juventus), Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton), Guido Rodríguez (Betis), Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen), Thiago Almada (Atlanta United), Maximo Perrone (Manchester City), Facundo Buonanotte (Brighton), Giovani Lo Celso (Villarreal), Buendía (Aston Villa), Valentín Carboni (Inter) and Enzo Fernández.
Strikers: Angel Di Maria (Juventus), Lautaro Martinez (Inter), Julian Alvarez (Manchester City), Paulo Dybala (Roma), Angel Correa (Atletico Madrid), Messi (Paris Saint-Germain), Nicolas Gonzalez (Fiorentina) and Giovanni Simeone (Naples).