‘King’ meets ‘God’: Shah Rukh Khan greets Lionel Messi, shares warm handshake, poses for photos amid loud cheers

Ahead of Lionel Messi's appearance at the Yuvabharati Stadium in Salt Lake, Shah Rukh Khan met up with the Global star.

Lionel Messi’s India visit git its first viral moment in Kolkata on Saturday, not with a goal, but with a grin, a handshake, and a camera lick next to Shah Rukh Khan and his son AbRam.

Video clips doing the rounds show Messing sharing a handshake with a smile and a warm photo-op with AbRam and SRK, the kind of crossover that turns a sports event into a full-blown pop-culture headline.

Kolkata’s Messi mania

This wasn’t a random celebrity meet. Kolkata is the opening stop of Messi’s much-hyped GOAT Tour of India 2025, with a packed schedule of public appearances and curated events over a short, high-intensity window.

A major centrepiece on Day 1 was the virtual unveiling of a 70-foot statue of Messi, a spectacle designed for scale, optics, and the kind of fanfare Indian football rarely gets at this level.

Lionel Messi’s presence has also pulled in familiar football company. Luis Suarez and Rodrigo de Paul, alongside him, as the tour caravan moves city to city, adding to the vibe for fans.

Messi's Kolkata stop also got a blockbuster welcome with clips going viral of the fans going crazy at his arrival at the airport. Notably, the Argentine World Cup winner will be a witness to a game between the Diamond Harbour Messi All Star vs Mohun Bagan Messi All Star at the iconic Salt Lake stadium.

Kolkata, predictably, leaned all the way in. The city rolled out crowd-management plans and traffic advisories around the main venue, a sign of just how tightly choreographed and massively attended this stop was expected to be.

For SRK and AbRam, it’s a cameo. For India, it is the headline: the world’s biggest football face landing in India and instantly becoming the country’s biggest shared screen.