Kerala state sports minister V. Abdurahiman has expressed that World Champions Argentina have conveyed their willingness to play a couple of friendlies in the Indian state in the year 2025.
The announcement came on the back of a virtual meeting between the officials of the South Indian state and the South American nation, a couple of weeks after AFA, the Argentine nation’s football body had responded to the state’s invitation for the exhibition games.
Along with Abdurahiman, the Kerala state secretary of sports Pranab Jyothinath, Kerala Football Association president Nawaz Meeran and AFA’s head of international relations, Pablo Diaz, were present at the meeting.
Reports suggest that AFA was interested in playing a friendly in July, but Abdurahiman said that the game would likely be scheduled for October in the year 2025 citing the effects of climatic conditions.
“We informed them about the difficulty in hosting since it would be monsoon here. So they agreed to play in October 2025,” the Kerala sports minister said.
Argentina has an incredible following in the South Indian state thanks to their historical successes under the leadership of the legendary Diego Maradona, who is revered as one of the finest players to have ever been born worldwide.
The love and admiration of the football-mad state for the Albiceleste increased multifold courtesy of the exploits of record eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, who also won his first World Cup in the year 2022.
“We were told that all the players, including their captain, have expressed interest in playing in Kerala. They spoke about the Argentina fans in Kerala at great length,” Abdulrahman said.
AFA had earlier offered to play a friendly in India back in June 2023, but the AIFF turned it down citing the huge costs of hosting the Albiceleste.
“They accepted the invitation from Kerala whose fans had turned our state into a sea of blue during the Qatar World Cup,” he added.
Abdurahiman touched up on the challenges that would come along with hosting the three-time World Cup-winning nation but also expressed that it would be the ultimate encouragement for the football-crazy state and also spoke about AFA’s interest in the development of players.
“Although organising these friendlies will be a big task, it will be the best gift to the football lovers of Kerala and the biggest motivation for our players.” the 61-year-old expressed.
“The AFA expressed interest in playing an active role in the development of football in Kerala. They also expressed interest in training 5,000 young footballers by cooperating with the Goal football training project of the Kerala government,” he concluded.
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