shanghai argentine superstar lionel messi arrived in beijing on saturday for a friendly match before leaving a storied european career to join major league soccer side inter miami as a free agenthis arrival was announced in a post on the organiser international football invitations official weibo social media site with a video of players stepping off a plane ahead of thursdays argentinaaustralia match in the chinese capitals recently rebuilt workers stadiummessi who lifted the world cup in qatar in december and is widely considered to be one of the games alltime greats confirmed this week he will leave french champions paris st germain for the us leaguethis is the argentina captains seventh visit to china and his first since 2017he has received a fervent welcome on each of his previous visits to china which has a huge soccer fan base despite the struggles of the mens national team who have played at the world cup only onceaustralia and argentina last met at the 2022 world cup in qatar in the round of 16 where messi was among the scorers as his team won 21