Lionel Messi’s GOAT India tour: Check Leo’s Delhi schedule, including meetings with PM Modi, Virat Kohli

Delhi is preparing to welcome football icon Lionel Messi at a sold-out event at Arun Jaitley Stadium. It will be his first public appearance in the capital.

After a debated Kolkata start and successful shows in Hyderabad and Mumbai, attention now shifts to Delhi. Messi joins Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul for an exhibition, a felicitation and a private meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Lionel Messi is set to arrive in Delhi on the morning of 15 December 2025, straight after completing his GOAT India Tour event in Mumbai.

Messi is also expected to have a private meet and greet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same day. Union Home Minister Amit Shah may also be present though there is no official confirmation yet.

Reports suggest the meeting could include the Chief of Defence Staff and the Chief Justice of India. If that happens, it will be a rare high-profile moment.

Multiple schedules have emerged for Lionel Messi’s tentative programme in New Delhi as part of the GOAT India Tour. According to one schedule, Messi is expected to arrive in New Delhi at around 10:45 AM, followed by a short meet-and-greet at a city hotel.

Soon after, he is slated to travel to the Prime Minister Modi’s residence for a private meeting. The interaction is expected to last about 20 minutes.

Meetings with other VVIPs, including the Chief Justice of India and the Chief of Defence Staff, are planned in the afternoon.

The public event at Arun Jaitley Stadium is scheduled to begin at 1:30 PM, with the main programme starting around 2:30 PM.

Messi is expected to enter the field at 3:30 PM, followed by a children’s football clinic and a felicitation ceremony, before departing in the late afternoon.

However, another source states that Messi will arrive in Delhi between 11:00 AM and 12:30 PM via a charter flight from Mumbai. There will be a quick transfer to his hotel.

This schedule places the courtesy meeting with the prime minister later, between 2:30 PM and 3:30 PM. According to this schedule, stadium gates will open at 5:00 PM.

The main GOAT event and exhibition show will run from 7 PM to 9:30 PM, followed by private engagements. Messi’s departure from India is expected late at night or early on 16 December.

While the timings seem tentative, the events are broadly the same. There is no official schedule released by the organisers.

The event will start at 2.30 PM, with a celebrity football match scheduled at 2.50 PM. At 3.30 PM, Messi will attend the celebrity match and have a football masterclass with 30 kids from Minerva Academy. The stage ceremony is scheduled to start at 4:20 PM, according to the publication.

The Argentine star is expected to meet Virat Kohli at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. This meeting follows his interaction with Sachin Tendulkar at the Cricket Club of India.