Chinese fan who hugged Messi during football match in Beijing detained

The fan, who is 18 years old and identified by the police as “Di,” has also been banned from entering sports venues as a spectator for similar games for 12 months.

Beijing Police did not specify how long “Di” would remain in detention but did say that the fan has apologized for this behaviour and accepted his punishment.

Videos that went viral on Chinese social media show the young fan leaping from the stands before sprinting toward Messi – who like him was wearing the number 10 jersey – and giving him a hug. The clips show Messi, who appears initially shocked, stretching out his arms and hugging the fan's back.

With the crowd cheering, three security guards then give chase, the first of them falling over as the young fan evaded his grasp. The fan then raised his hands as he outsprinted the other two guards and high-fived Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. It is only after the fan eventually tripped up himself that security finally caught up to him and took him back to the stands, where he was greeted like a hero.

For many onlookers, the brief interlude was one of the most entertaining moments of an event that has drawn widespread interest across China since the 35-year-old Messi arrived in Beijing on Saturday.

On Chinese social media, many users – football fans or otherwise – celebrated the young fan’s sprint across the grass pitch as a liberating moment.

For some, his daring dash through security lines has become a symbol of freedom and youthful vitality in a society still reeling from the trauma of three years of Covid restrictions and feeling the squeeze of a slowing economy.

“This kind of running is exactly what is lacking in the increasingly desolate souls of the Chinese people,” says the headline of a widely circulated commentary on WeChat, which was later censored.

But even before the fan’s antics, interest in the event had been sky-high.

Tickets to the match at the 68,000-capacity Workers’ Stadium, which cost up to $4,800 yuan ($670), sold out within 20 minutes, according to Chinese state media Global Times, while touts advertised tickets online for multiple times their face value.