Argentina to Play Friendly in Kerala This November, Confirms AFA

23 August-Kolkata, India: The official confirmation now states that the Argentina national football team will visit Kerala in November for a friendly match. In a statement released on Friday, August 22, the Argentina Football Association (AFA) announced that the Lionel Scaloni-led FIFA World Cup-winning side would play two friendlies this year: one in Angola and India in November, and another in the United States in October.

The AFA officially confirmed on their website that they will play the match against the Indian football team in Kerala at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. However, they have not confirmed whether the Argentine legend and 2022 World Cup-winning skipper Lionel Messi will travel with the squad.

Officials released a statement that said, “The Argentine national team, led by Lionel Scaloni, will have two FIFA friendlies in the remainder of 2025. The organizers will hold the first event in October, from the 6th to the 14th, in the United States (they will determine the opponents and cities). They will host the second event, a FIFA friendly in November, from the 10th to the 18th, in Luanda, Angola, and Kerala, India (they will determine the opponents).”

AFA officially confirmed the India Tour

Earlier, there was a lot of confusion between event sponsors, AFA officials and the Kerala government, which caused a great deal of misunderstanding about Argentina’s journey to India, casting doubt on whether the friendly would ever happen.

V Abdurahiman, the Sports Minister of Kerala even stated that “the team would not visit while the sponsors threatened legal action against AFA. However, it now appears that someone has sorted everything, and Argentina is all set to play in India later this year.“

It will be the 2022 World Cup-winning side’s second visit to India, after Argentina played a friendly match against Venezuela in 2011 at the Salt Lake Stadium with Lionel Messi in the side, and he also officially became the skipper of the side in that match. It’s still unclear, though, if they will include the Inter Miami star in the squad this time.

According to reports earlier this month, Messi would travel to India on a private trip that would stop in four different cities: Ahmedabad, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Kolkata.