Cricketers may be the nation’s reigning gods, but in Kolkata, football is the flavour of the season.
After Pele, and more recently, Diego Maradona and Oliver Kahn, the city will host the Argentina and Venezuela national football teams. The first batch of the Argentina team and support staff arrived on Monday, but the city is waiting for Lionel Messi.
He may arrive on Wednesday. Nonetheless the city is ready to greet the stars. Hoardings and festoons of Messi and Argentina can be seen everywhere, while jerseys, with Messi’s name on it, are being sold at a premium.
As the Salt Lake stadium readies for India’s first Fifa-sanctioned friendly on September 2, Mohammedan sporting club is seeing queues for tickets.
Celebrity Management Group’s executive director Bhaswar Goswami said, “We have sold over 30,000 tickets till now.” Sources said six corporate boxes have been sold to film stars, celebrities and the UB Group at Rs7.5 lakh per box.
The second friendly is on September 6 in Dhaka between Argentina and Nigeria.
