KINGSTON, Ja­maica – Many ador­ing foot­ball fans in Ja­maica are still pinch­ing them­selves at the prospect of wit­ness­ing one of the sport’s great­est play­ers grac­ing their home­land, as Li­onel Mes­si, the glob­al foot­ball icon, is poised to play his first-ever match in Ja­maica.

Fol­low­ing In­ter Mi­a­mi’s dom­i­nant 4-1 ag­gre­gate vic­to­ry over Sport­ing Kansas City in the Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons Cup, Mes­si and his team will now take on Ja­maica Pre­mier League cham­pi­ons Cav­a­lier SC in the round of 16.

The first leg of the tie will be held on March 6 at In­ter Mi­a­mi’s home ground, but all eyes are firm­ly set on the sec­ond leg, sched­uled for March 13 at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Kingston, Ja­maica.

The an­tic­i­pa­tion for Mes­si’s de­but in the Caribbean has reached fever pitch, with tick­ets for the match re­port­ed­ly sell­ing out in just 30 min­utes af­ter In­ter Mi­a­mi se­cured their place in the next round.

To ac­com­mo­date the over­whelm­ing de­mand, Cav­a­lier SC has moved the game from their usu­al 3,000-seat sta­di­um to the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Kingston, which can hold up to 35,000 spec­ta­tors.

For Ja­maica, Mes­si’s vis­it is noth­ing short of a phe­nom­e­non. The eight-time Bal­lon d’Or win­ner has nev­er played an of­fi­cial match in the coun­try, and his ar­rival marks a sig­nif­i­cant mo­ment for Ja­maican foot­ball.

“Mes­si­ma­nia” is cer­tain­ly in full swing, but it is not the first time that Cav­a­lier has brought high-pro­file play­ers to Ja­maica. Back in 1971, a Cav­a­lier In­vi­ta­tion­al team took on San­tos of Brazil at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, with the leg­endary Ed­son Arantes do Nasci­men­to (Pele) in their line-up.

Pele was pre­sent­ed with the Keys to the city by the May­or of Kingston, Coun­cil­lor Emer­son Bar­rett.

CMC