{"id":63644,"date":"2025-10-31T18:26:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T18:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa"},"modified":"2025-10-31T19:30:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T19:30:25","slug":"angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa","title":{"rendered":"Angola Invests Heavily to Bring Messi to Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span><b>The upcoming November international break will serve as a key preparation window for African nations ahead of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. <\/b><\/p>\n<p>For Angola, the choice of opponent is anything but ordinary. On November 14th, the Palancas Negras will face Argentina, the reigning world champions, in a friendly that has already made headlines for its cost. Argentina, known for commanding hefty fees for friendlies, has significantly raised its prices since their 2022 World Cup triumph.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, the Albiceleste were in talks with Morocco, but negotiations collapsed when the North African federation refused to pay over \u20ac10 million plus travel expenses.<\/p>\n<p>Angola, eager to mark its independence day in grand fashion, seized the opportunity. According to Sport News Africa, the Angolan Football Federation agreed to pay \u20ac12 million to secure Messi and his teammates for the celebration match. The atmosphere promises to be electric, with fans flocking to witness the eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner in action. Yet, questions remain about whether the spectacle will be worth the staggering investment\u2014financially and symbolically\u2014for Angolan football.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The upcoming November international break will serve as a key preparation window for African nations ahead of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco. For Angola, the choice of opponent is anything but ordinary. On November 14th, the Palancas Negras will face Argentina, the reigning world champions, in a friendly that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":63643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-63644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Angola Invests Heavily to Bring Messi to Africa - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The upcoming November international break will serve as a key preparation window for African nations ahead of the 202 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Angola Invests Heavily to Bring Messi to Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The upcoming November international break will serve as a key preparation window for African nations ahead of the 202 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-31T18:26:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-31T19:30:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1761926373.48147.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Angola Invests Heavily to Bring Messi to Africa\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-31T18:26:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-31T19:30:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa\"},\"wordCount\":194,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/10\/sm_1761926373.48147.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/angola-invests-heavily-to-bring-messi-to-africa\",\"name\":\"Angola Invests Heavily to Bring Messi to Africa - 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