Preview for Angola v Argentina
Argentina’s latest lucrative friendly will take place in Angola tomorrow with Lionel Messi and Co lined up to feature in Luanda.
The hosts have reportedly paid the Argentine Football Association around $6m to take part in an event that will form a central part of Angola’s festivities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence from Portugal.
But with one third of the country’s 38 million residents living in poverty, according to the World Bank, the fixture has caused a great deal of discord with civil rights groups calling on Argentina to boycott the game.
Four groups wrote an open letter to the Argentine Football Association, the national team and the Lionel Messi Foundation charity, stating pulling out of the fixture “would be a noble gesture of international solidarity and respect for human rights.”
It added: “While public resources are being channelled to large-scale sporting events, thousands of children and adults face chronic hunger, severe anaemia, and widespread food insecurity.”
Argentina have played in a series of friendlies since winning the World Cup in Qatar three years ago, including trips to China, Indonesia and the United States.
The standard of opposition has largely been weak with the likes of Curacao, Panama and El Salvador swept aside.
Angola are 89th in the world rankings and unlikely to trouble a team that cruised through qualifying for the World Cup after topping the Conmebol section.
For Messi it’s a first return to Africa in national team colours since the 2010 World Cup when Argentina, under Diego Maradona, were hammered 4-0 by Germany in the quarter-finals.
He did return with Barcelona for a friendly with the Mamelodi Sundowns in 2018.
It has been a busy week for the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner. He started it by helping Inter Miami reach the MLS Eastern Conference semi-finals for the first time, scoring his 41st and 42nd goals of the season in a 4-0 win over Nashville.
He then popped into the under-construction Camp Nou in Barcelona – making headlines along the way – on his way to Alicante to meet up with his international team-mates for a training camp.
