Barcelona soccer star Lionel Messi played to the crowds on Sunday (July 22) in Guangzhou, in China's south eastern province of Guangdong as thousands of fans turned out to watch him demonstrating his skills. The 20-year-old Argentine international is one of the world's new rising football stars, and hailed as the new Diego Maradona. His promotional tour to several major cities in China has been organised by Pepsi, who are launching their own Messi limited-edition can product range. Pepsi recruited the Argentinian player to their football superstar matrix earlier this year. Armies of fans have greeted Messi in every city during his two day whistlestop tour of China as three thousand competition winners were given the chance of taking part in Pepsi's activities alongside their hero. Having taken part in the Copa America, Messi is not required to join the Barcelona squad until August 15 -- after the team's pre-season Asian tour -- but it is believed that he will restart training for the new season on his own in Barcelona a week earlier. Messi is expected to fly back to Argentina next Tuesday (July 24), and spend the rest of his summer holiday there.
ITN Source | July 23, 2007