Lionel Messi is officially returning to India in December 2025, making it one of the biggest football moments the country has seen since his 2011 Kolkata appearance. The G.O.A.T. India Tour 2025, branded as “A Satadru Dutta Initiative”, will take the football icon across four major cities in three days from December 13 to 15 marking a first-of-its-kind multi-city fan event in India.
While Messi’s visit to India and its related buzz drove several headlines across media outlets. The mega football promotion movement that drove him here in the first place with India at its heart remains less known to the masses.
This movement which began all the way back in 2015 with the visit of Brazilian World Cup champion Pele to India has now culminated into something much more grand than what any one could have conceived at the time. At the helm of this movement stands one man, Satadru Dutta.
Who is Satadru Dutta?
Born in the town of Hughly that gave rise to India’s homegrown football legends like Sudhir Karmakar and Sisir Ghosh, Dutta is credited with bringing the likes of Ronaldinho, Cafu, Maradona, Messi, Emi Martinez to India.
Armed with an MBA from West Bengal University of Technology, Dutta spent some time working in corporate settings across firms like L&FS and HSBC before beginning his journey as a sport promoter and philanthropist.
Satadru Dutta founded “A Satadru Dutta Initiative” in 2011. The company’s work combines sports marketing, celebrity management, and social causes, showcasing how global athletes can play a role in uplifting communities and promoting the spirit of the game.
Ganguly to Pele: Beginnings of Dutta’s journey
Before taking off with football and organising personal tours of football stalwarts, Dutta had to face a formidable challenge. The challenge in question involved him meeting his first sporting idol that made him tremble in his shoes perhaps more from when he met Maradona or Pele. This idol would then become a pillar of support for the future of A Surataru Dutta initiative.
As you might have guessed from the subhead of this story, this idol was none other than Bengal’s most famous cricketer and former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly. Ganguly has been a key supporter of the sports promotion and marketing activities undertaken by the initiative.
Ganguly played a key role in bringing Pele to Kolkata, where meeting the soccer star was considered a highlight of the event.
The duo have also collaborated on philanthropic initiatives. The “A Satadru Dutta Initiative” partnered with the Sourav Ganguly Foundation to express gratitude to healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lessons from Pele, Maradona and Ronaldinho’s visit
An arden fan of the sport, Dutta has been gunning for the arrival of Lionel Messi in India for quite some time and mobilised contacts made during his previous tours to get global football stars to return to India including that of Ronaldinho and Emi Martinez.
Ronaldinho, a mentor and friend to Messi from his early days at Barcelona, also visited Kolkata for events earlier this year where he inaugurated a 75-foot statue of Messi lifting the World Cup as part of a Durga Puja tribute for the Argentina captain following their 2022 World Cup win.
Golden gloves winner and World Cup champ Emi Martínez had also visited India earlier through the Satadru Dutta initiative and played a key role in bringing Messi to India. Following both of their visits, Dutta had requested the football icons to put in a good word for him.
The positive reviews from two people close to Messi were a key factor in convincing his team. Satadru Dutta later met with Messi’s father and agent, Jorge Messi, and then Messi himself in February 2025. As per a report by Indian express visual proof of the previous successful events and the emotional impact of the fan tributes (like the statue) presented by Dutta to Messi played a big role in finalising Messi’s visit.
