Lionel Messi won’t play for Argentina vs. El Salvador at the Linc

Messi has been dealing with a hamstring strain he suffered recently with Miami. It's not known yet if he'll come to town anyway to visit his friends from the reigning World Cup champions.

Lionel Messi (left) won't play for Argentina against El Salvador at Lincoln Financial Field on Friday because of a hamstring strain he recently suffered with his club team, Inter Miami.Read moreMichael Laughlin / AP

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published March 18, 2024, 4:43 p.m. ET

Local soccer fans hoping to see Lionel Messi play for Argentina against El Salvador at Lincoln Financial Field on Friday had their hopes dashed on Monday.

Argentina’s national team announced that Messi is out of that game and next Tuesday’s matchup with Nigeria in Los Angeles due to a hamstring strain he suffered recently with Inter Miami.

Messi left Miami’s Concacaf Champions Cup game vs. Nashville SC last Wednesday in the 50th minute, earlier than expected. He didn’t appear to be injured, but Miami manager Gerardo Martino said afterward that it was precautionary.

It turned out to be more than that. Messi didn’t play in Miami’s game at D.C. United on Saturday, and hasn’t arrived in Philadelphia yet. It’s unclear if he’ll come to town at all, though he might at least like to visit his longtime friends from the squad that helped him win the 2022 World Cup.

Ticket sales for Friday’s game have been surprisingly low, only around 20,000. Perhaps the high ticket prices, $75 and up plus Ticketmaster’s fees, were a factor. But even though Messi’s status has been up in the air over the last few days, the game was announced Feb. 22, before he’d played a game yet this year.

El Salvador was also expected to bring a big fan contingent, given the large Salvadoran expat population in the Northeast. But La Selecta is playing in D.C., a longtime Salvadoran hotbed, on Wednesday. That might have put another dent in sales here.

Argentina’s squad still has many other stars from the world’s biggest clubs, including Julián Álvarez (Manchester City), Lautaro Martínez (Inter Milan), Ángel Di María (Benfica), Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United), Enzo Fernández (Chelsea), and Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool).

But Messi’s aura overshadows them all so much that it seems he alone has been the biggest factor in ticket sales.

Don’t expect to see Messi when Inter Miami visits the Union on June 15, either. The Copa América starts five days later, so Messi should be gone to Argentina’s national team by then.

Local fans’ best bets to see Messi this year are when Argentina plays a Copa warmup game vs. Guatemala at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., on June 14; and when Argentina plays Chile in the tournament’s group stage at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on June 25. Argentina could also play in a semifinal there on July 9.