Nigeria vs Argentina international friendly called off over Messi absence

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

The highly anticipated friendly match between Nigeria’s senior men’s national team and world champions, Argentina has been cancelled.

The test-match between both nations was slated to take place in March in China but has now been called off due to an issue with the Argentine captain.

He was expected to appear in a club warm-up game in Hong Kong, China which he failed to show up as a result of a groin injury.

His absence has sparked lots of tension spreading across China.

“As a commercial event, a company and the Argentinean soccer team negotiated that the team would play a friendly match in March this year in the city of Hangzhou,” the Hangzhou authorities said in a statement.

“Given the current well-known reasons, according to the competent authorities, conditions to hold the friendly match are not mature, therefore (we) have decided to cancel it.”

Super Eagles’ last victory over the South American side came in a friendly match before the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Both sides met five times at the FIFA World Cup in 1994, 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2018 with Argentina winning all the games.

The two teams met for the first time in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, with Messi scoring three goals at the World Cups.