After missing out on Messi moment in Kolkata, teen plays with icon in Hyderabad

KOLKATA: When 17-year-old Vedang Sharma missed out on tickets for Lionel Messi’s Kolkata appearance, he did what any diehard fan would do: kept chasing his dream. The Class XII student at Sri Sri Academy flew to Hyderabad and what followed was pure magic.

Happy to get a seat on the stands of Hyderabad’s Uppal stadium, Vedang ended up donning the colours of the Messi All Stars team and shaking hands and even exchanging passes with his icon.


The Hyderabad leg of Messi’s tour — hours after the Kolkata fiasco last Saturday — was designed as a spectacle: a compact 7v7 exhibition match featuring Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy. Messi, along with his Inter Miami teammates Luis Suárez and Rodrigo De Paul, did not play but remained central to the event, watching closely from the sidelines.

Vedang’s entry into the stadium itself was a minor miracle.

“We couldn’t get any tickets for the Kolkata event,” he said, still sounding incredulous. His father, Dilip Sharma, was travelling to Hyderabad for work on Saturday when a friend mentioned possible contacts at Uppal stadium. Vedang tagged along hoping against hope that at least one of those contacts would get him in.

And in he did get. “I was so happy to get an opportunity to see Messi from a distance,” he said. “Then they took me closer. That was when it stopped feeling real.”

Little did he know that it was just the beginning of a long surreal spell. As players warmed up, organisers called for volunteers to complete the Messi All Stars line-up. One player short, they turned to the wide-eyed teenager near the touchline.

Vedang, who has played football since the age of five and represented his school in a national tournament, barely had time to process what was unfolding before him. “When they called me in, my legs were wobbling in excitement. I told myself — just get on the pitch, run, breathe,” the Ballygunge resident, a left winger-cum-striker, recounted to TOI.He was given a jersey, briefed and ushered into the pitch.

On the field, Vedang lined up for the Messi All Stars against the team led by the Telangana CM. His team eventually lost the exhibition match but the result mattered little to him. The event gifted him some post-match moments he would cherish forever — Messi walking over after the whistle, shaking his hand, posing for photographs with him and other young players, and even joining a passing drill with the teenagers.

Vedang said he and Messi exchanged at least 10 passes — brief, ordinary movements that to him felt like an entire conversation.

“He and De Paul looked at me, smiled and patted my back saying ‘Vamos’ (Spanish for ‘Let’s go’). That handshake — I keep replaying it. It still feels like a dream; I am scared that I would wake up and all this would vanish,” said Vedang, whose Instagram profile is full of images and videos from the event.

“My parents have always supported me — they said education comes first but also that some chances come only once,” he said.

When asked if he is flexing the moment with his classmates and neighbours, the boy laughed. “They are jealous, of course. But I tell them that dreams still come true. All you need to do is not to give up.”