Thousands gather to watch Lionel Messi train in Hong Kong

Tens of thousands of soccer fans flocked to Hong Kong to watch Lionel Messi train with his Inter Miami teammates as “Messi mania” spread across the city on Saturday.

Ahead of a match on Sunday, fans flocked to Hong Kong Stadium to see the Argentine legend, the greatest player of his generation, after police cordoned off surrounding streets, according to AFP.

Prospective spectators had lined up outside the 40,000-seater stadium hours before Inter Miami took to the pitch for an open training session, chanting the World Cup captain’s name.

David Beckham, who co-owns the Major League Soccer team, made his appearance to thunderous applause from a nearly packed crowd.

But the ovation Messi, 36, received when he appeared on the pitch with his team-mates for a light training session almost brought the roof down minutes later.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner covered up a nagging hamstring injury by spending most of the hour-long session stretching. However, he joined 80 lucky Hong Kong students for a kickabout during a coaching clinic that followed.

Beckham soon took responsibility for imparting certain skills to the children.

However, the main reason thousands of fans came was to watch Messi as the team played a friendly against an elite Hong Kong XI on Sunday.

“It’s the first time in my life I’ve seen Messi,” said 17-year-old Chinese student Li Weiyi, who had traveled from Shenzhen, across the border to mainland China.

“I feel very excited. Means a lot to me. He brought me into the world of football, he made me love football,” he added.

The majority of fans wore pink Inter Miami jerseys or blue and white striped Argentina jerseys.