Football player Lionel Messi held at China airport over passport issues

The footballer ran into trouble after his Spanish passport wasn't accepted by Chinese authoriries. Photo / Unsplash

Even celebrities like Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi can get confused when it comes to passports and visas for international travel.

Over the weekend, the 35-year-old took a private jet to Beijing to join his teammates ahead of a friendly match against Australia on Thursday.

However, a video shows him standing in the airport, holding his passport, surrounded by a group of police officers.

Authorities took issue with the passport Messi had arrived on, according to local Chinese media. The footballer has both an Argentinian and Spanish passport and travelled to China on the Spanish passport.

So, why did Messi use his Spanish passport? Spanish citizens do not need a visa to enter Taiwan, which the footballer mistakenly thought was part of China, according to UK-based media outlet Mirror.

The mistake is understandable. Taiwan is a country in East Asia and is officially called the Republic of China (ROC). Similarly, China is a country in East Asia and is officially called the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Spanish citizens have visa-free entry to ROC...but not PRC. Therefore, in order to leave the airport, Messi had to wait two hours to get an expedited visa.

This would not have been cheap.

If Messi was travelling on a New Zealand passport, he wouldn’t have had to worry about a visa. From September 12, 2023, Taiwan resumed its visa-free entry for visitors arriving from New Zealand, the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.

New Zealand travellers do, however, need a visa to visit China. The China Tourist Visa, also called the L Visa, allows Kiwi tourists to enter China for a holiday and is usually valid for 30 to 90 days. It can also be single or multiple-entry, depending on your travel plans.

A single entry visa holiday visa for New Zealanders is $140 and takes approximately four working days to receive, according to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to New Zealand.