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Messi's Inter Miami team strikes 2-game deal to play in China in November
Lionel Messi is evidently going back to China, after Inter Miami took advantage of not making the Major League Soccer playoffs by signing a deal to play two exhibitions there next month
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi is evidently going back to China, after Inter Miami took advantage of not making the Major League Soccer playoffs by signing a deal to play two exhibitions there next month.
The team said it would play a pair of friendlies against Chinese Super League teams, first in Qingdao, China against Qingdao Hainiu on Nov. 5 and then against Chengdu Rongcheng in Chengdu, China on Nov. 8. Those two stadiums can both hold between 50,000 and 60,000 fans.
Those dates coincide with the first round of the MLS playoffs. Inter Miami was eliminated from playoff contention earlier this month.
Inter Miami's announcement of the deal did not specifically mention Messi or any other player, though it would be surprising if Chinese officials agreed to the games without some sort of guarantee that the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner and the team's other best-known standouts — Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba among them — would be making the trip if physically able.