Eyewitnesses recount incident that scared Messi's team at Kolkata stadium: 'Pen scratched his body ...'

As Lionel Messi’s whirlwind India tour draws to a close, the chaos at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday continues to cast a grim shadow on the football legend’s visit.

The opening leg of Messi’s four-city ‘GOAT India Tour 2025’ in Kolkata descended into chaos on Saturday morning due to poor crowd management and security lapses, with the Argentine superstar surrounded and pushed by selfie-seeking politicians and VIPs.

Accusations have been flying thick and fast about what led to the melee, prompting Messi to cut short his appearance and exit the stadium within minutes.

According to a report in The Times of India, eyewitnesses have identified a specific trigger for Lionel Messi’s exit from the stadium. The report said that someone from the crowd of VVIPs surrounding Messi — including politicians and organisers — was pestering the football star for an autograph on a T-shirt. Amid the commotion, the pen reportedly scratched his body.

The incident immediately sparked alarm bells among Messi’s security team who said that the arrangements were not adequate enough and the situation can turn risky. The report said that Messi then told Satadru Dutta, the organiser of the event who is now in police custody, that he wants to leave the stadium.

Other witnesses said that some people who wanted a selfie with Messi were pushing and shoving him, making the football star uncomfortable. “He is used to extreme adulation, but this was different. The nudging simply would not stop,” a witness told TOI.

The situation could not be controlled after Dutta urged for people to remain calm. The report said that even police officers who were there to ring-fence Messi started taking selfies with him. Even

his fellow Inter Miami teammates Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul were pushed around by fans who wanted to get closer to Messi.

The report said that a woman also rushed in for a photograph with Messi when he was moving towards the VIP gallery. This triggered a crush. A witness recounted Messi’s manager saying “Vida” (Spanish for life) to the football player. ““That’s when I realised Messi’s team sensed a serious threat to his safety and wanted to leave.”

The curtailed event triggered unrest among sections of the crowd, with angry spectators who had spent thousands of rupees to attend the programme vandalising the stadium, which was left littered with broken chairs, damaged canopies and water bottles strewn all over the pitch.