Lionel Messi is coming! India tour later in 2025 confirmed, ‘very special’ shoutout sparks fan meltdown
Lionel Messi confirms his visit to India later in 2025. Gets nostalgic about his last visit in 2014.
Lionel Messi is officially coming to India in December 2025. Exactly 14 years since his last appearance on these shores. Organisers have aligned on a mid-December window with a multi-city format designed around fan interactions, celebratory events, and legacy moments.
“It is such an honour for me to make this trip. India is a very special country, and I have good memories from my time there 14 years ago, the fans were fantastic,” Messi said. Notably, 14 years ago, Lionel Messi visited Kolkata, where he played a friendly international match. The recent statement of the Argentinian maestro sets an emotional tone for a week that is likely to be dominated by nostalgia and massive fandom.
What is included in the tour
The current schedules point to a Dec 13-15 window, with four-city visits across Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi. The reports indicate the tour would culminate in the capital city on December 15, where a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been discussed. Unlike the last tour of Messi, this time, fan events and stage shows would be the center of attraction rather than the star in action.
Kolkata is slated to open the tour, preserving the symbolic arc of Messi’s first visit to his return as a World Cup-winning captain. Mumbai is expected to feature high-visibility engagements, while Ahmedabad and New Delhi would provide a spectacular close to the circuit. The details could still be shuffled for security and logistics, but the four-city tour itinerary remains confirmed across multiple reports.
Significance of the visit
Messi’s choice to foreground the line “India is a very special country” is much more than just courtesy. It is a deliberate signal to his huge fanbase in the football frenzy nation that has matured in scale and sophistication since his last visit. For a generation that has discovered Mess on late-night telecasts and social feeds, this would be a golden chance to watch their icon. Messi’s statement also reframes the tour as a recognition of Indian fandom’s permanence and purchasing power in the world game.
Commercially, the visit is a tidal event in Indian football. Culturally, this is a chance to locate Indian football inside a global conversation that Messi, more than anyone else in the world, can ignite by just showing up.
