After weeks of uncertainty, the Lionel Messi-led Argentina football team is finally set to visit Kerala in November this year for a friendly match. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) has, on Friday, confirmed that Lionel Messi and Argentina’s World Cup-winning team will come to Kerala between November 10 and 18, 2025.
“Information about the 2025 international friendlies that will face the national team led by Lionel Scaloni: In FIFA date for the month of October, between the dates 6th and the 14th, will be played in the United States, and for the month of November, between 10th and 18th, in Luanda (Angola) and Kerala (India). Rivals to be determined,” according to the official AFA announcement on X.
After this, the AFA India posted on X: “The Argentine National Team will visit Kerala this November as part of its international friendlies! A project we began over a year ago in Madrid with the Kerala Govt now opens a new chapter in AFA’s global expansion.”
Kerala Sports Minister V Abdurahiman, who has spearheaded the effort since November 2024, said the official confirmation came through an email communication from the Argentine Football Association (AFA). “Official confirmation has been received via official mail that the Argentina team, which won the Qatar World Cup, including Lionel Messi, will arrive in Kerala for a friendly match during the November 2025 FIFA International Window,” he posted on X.
The announcements mark the strongest signal that Kerala will host Messi, after months of wrangling over finances and scheduling. Reports of delayed sponsor payments, and even allegations from the state that AFA was attempting to shift the tour to October 2026, had earlier cast doubt on the project.
For the past several weeks the state government and Sports Minister Abdurahiman had come under severe attack from the Congress and other Opposition parties in Kerala for their failure to bring football icon Lionel Messi and the Argentina national team to the state, as promised.
The Congress launched a blistering attack on the state government after the AFA accused it of breaching a contract to bring football icon Lionel Messi and the Argentina national team to the state.
“Messi is missing,” quipped KPCC president Sunny Joseph, demanding that the Sports Minister offer a clear explanation.