NEW DELHI: Colourful confetti showered down on Lionel Messi as he ended his whirlwind four-city tour of India with a cameo at New Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Monday, where a near-capacity crowd shouted themselves hoarse during his half-hour appearance.

The world’s most populous nation had temporarily put aside its cricket obsession and slipped into a ‘Messi-mania’ since the Argentine eight-time Ballon d’Or winner arrived late on Friday with thousands of fans waiting outside the airport in Kolkata.

Saturday’s event in Kolkata, however, descended into chaos with irate fans ripping up seats and invading the pitch after local politicians had hijacked the event. The chief organiser was detained by police.

Events in Hyderabad and Mumbai featuring Messi, 38, and his Inter Miami team-mates Luis Suarez and Rodrigo de Paul went ahead without issues and it was no different in Delhi.

Clad in a pink jersey and black trousers, Messi enthralled the audience with his charm as he kicked footballs into the crowd and obliged star-struck delegates and fans with selfies at a stadium that regularly hosts international cricket matches.

“It was beautiful to receive all the love and support. I knew it was there, but to receive it first-hand was, well, amazing”, Messi told the crowd, speaking in Spanish, saying he will “definitely be back”.

Cricket, however, did manage to sneak into the proceedings.

Messi, Suarez and De Paul received Indian cricket team jerseys from International Cricket Council chairman Jay Shah, along with tickets for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

India — a nation of 1.4 billion — are a cricket powerhouse, and the hype around Messi’s visit is a contrast to the general sense of gloom around the state of Indian football.

The country ranks a lowly 142nd in FIFA’s world rankings, and the Indian Super League is in limbo as the All India Football Federation failed to find a new commercial partner after its 10-year deal with the previous one expired.

Former India football captain Bhaichung Bhutia took the stage with Messi, who signed Argentine jerseys for the Indian star and his family.

Thousands of excited fans dismissed hazardous choking air pollution to see their hero.

“It was a dream-come-true moment for us to watch him in flesh and blood,” said Messi and Argentina fan Kaustav Ghosh, who attended the event along with his wife and two sons.

“We travelled to Russia for the 2018 World Cup but could not get tickets for any of the Argentina matches there. At least we saw Messi here,” said Ghosh, whose entire family turned up in Argentina jerseys.

New Delhi, and its wider sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents, is regularly ranked among the world’s most polluted capitals, due to a deadly mix of emissions from power plants, heavy traffic, as well as the burning of rubbish and crops.

Levels of cancer-causing PM 2.5 microparticles hit more than 300 micrograms per cubic metre in parts of New Delhi on Monday, according to monitoring organisation IQAir, 20 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.

A study in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2025