The footballers who earned plaudits donning the Mohun Bagan jersey during their heydays were all eagerly waiting for those precious few moments with Lionel Messi at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.

Being part of the Bagan All Stars team, they played against Diamond Harbour FC (comprising former players) for around half an hour, till play was stopped as the car carrying Messi, along with Luis Suarez, Rodrigo De Paul and his security team, entered the ground.

All eyes and attention were obviously on one man. Swarmed by organisers, politicians, those from the sponsors’ groups and others, Messi did go up to the players of both teams, greeted
them and even signed on their jerseys.

But soon, all hell broke loose. The presence of too many people around him made the situation far from ideal for Messi, who stayed at the ground only for 22 minutes. The former Bagan stars were extremely disappointed with how things transpired, acknowledging that such
disturbing scenes would never have happened if an open-top car ride was arranged for Messi.

“Messi seemed to be in a good mood when he came to greet us. He shook hands with us and signed on our jerseys. He was also getting ready to take a few penalties, as Dulal Biswas, Basudeb Mondal and I stood near the goalpost.

“He then started walking towards the goalpost at the other end. But all of a sudden, we saw him taking an about-turn and heading towards the exit,” former Bagan and India striker Dipendu Biswas told The Telegraph later.

“Obviously, that wasn’t something good to see as he was also scheduled for a football clinic with kids. We can’t figure out how so many people came inside the ground and surrounded him.

“But yes, where the organiser (Satadru Dutta) erred is not planning an open-top ride for Messi and the other two footballers (Suarez and De Paul).

“This had been done when Diego Maradona came here for the first time in 2008. I had played in that exhibition game as well in front of Maradona, for whom that (open-top ride) arrangement was made,” Dipendu said.

Dipendu, a Mohammedan Sporting official at present, may visit Mumbai for Messi’s last leg of India tour on Monday. “Virat Kohli and a few other Bollywood stars are expected to be present. I may go for it,” he stated.

Mehtab Hossain, former midfielder who starred for Bagan and donned India colours too, echoed Dipendu. “Initially, all seemed well when Messi shook hands with us. But seeing so many people around him, maybe that made him uncomfortable. I don’t want to get into
the details. All I can say is that an open-top ride would have helped avoid such embarrassing scenes.

“Such an arrangement was made during Maradona’s visit 17 years ago, which was a far better organised event,” Mehtab said, adding: “Besides, the car in which Messi, Suarez and De Paul came had a sunroof. So, that arrangement was quite possible.

“The crowd wanted to see Messi for some time. That’s all.”