The tickets for the football match between Lionel Messi’s club, Inter Miami, and a Hong Kong team were listed online on Friday. Within an hour of being made available to the public, they sold out. The match is scheduled for February 4 at the 40,000-capacity Hong Kong Stadium, where the Argentine great, along with his former Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, will play against a Hong Kong XI.

The ticket prices ranged from $110 to $625. Football fans logged in to the ticketing app on Friday morning and faced a long queue. Michel Lamuniere, chairman and CEO of Tatler Asia, which is helping to stage the game, said, “We are thrilled with the response from the fans.” However, some people experienced an error message on the app, which cited “traffic overload”.

On a radio program, former Hong Kong football team captain Chan Wai-ho said the upcoming matches will spice up the atmosphere.

“People who don’t normally watch the game might come because of one or two [famous] players. They will become enthusiastic after feeling the atmosphere of watching the game. The craze is not over yet. There is a game in January, and then there’s the Messi game, and another one on the thirteenth. I think it will spice up the atmosphere of the football matches,” he said.

Miami co-owner David Beckham, who played in Hong Kong in 2003 soon after joining Real Madrid, previously said the MLS club was looking forward to playing in a “beautiful city with a great sports scene”.