THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: August 10 turned out to be the luckiest day in the life of Thrissur native Anas P A. It was the day he met the legendary football sensation, Lionel Messi, whom he had longed to see in his whole lifetime.
The hardcore Messi fan who is on a vacation trip to Europe is now the talk of the town. Anas’ video went viral for his shout-out at Messi who was staying next to his hotel suite room in Paris.
Coincidentally, Anas and friends had booked a room in the same hotel where Messi was also halting as part of his contract signing with the new club Paris-Saint Germain (PSG).
Little did Anas, who is working in a private company in Qatar, knew while watching the Copa America final on July 10 with his family at his house in Thalikulam that he would meet the man who lifted the Copa America cup exactly a month later. Anas describes the experience as a miracle.
“Two days ago, we heard that the Argentina superstar will be staying at the same hotel. Being one of the popular seven-star hotels in Paris, it was obvious. We were informed that he would check in at 4.30pm that day, so I along with my friend and Malappuram native Sameer and our Iranian friend waited at the hotel entrance to get a glimpse of him. He was late and reached around 8pm. That said, the day is longer here. The sun sets only after 9pm. So it was still daylight at 8pm when Messi reached,” Anas told TNIE over phone from Paris.
“It was very crowded. We were not able to see him clearly and went back to our suite room in the hotel. Later, I heard loud cheers for Messi and thought the footballer was going somewhere and the crowd was cheering him. But I did not see him down when I looked from the balcony of my room which was on the fifth floor. I couldn’t believe my eyes that Messi and family were standing in the balcony of their suite room which was next to ours,” Anas said.
It was Anas’ loud calls ‘Messi, Messi’ that prompted the superstar to turn to him and smile.
“It was Tiago who first noticed me and later Messi turned towards me and gave a thumbs-up on my shout-out. Messi will be staying at the hotel for a few more days and Anas has already set his plans to meet his icon in the coming days.”