Argentina National Football Team Camp

The Argentine national team's training camp came in preparation for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Abu Dhabi hosted the camp from 9-16 November, based on an agreement concluded by the Abu Dhabi Sports Council with the Argentine Football Association.

Messi's arrival in Abu Dhabi, alongside his fellow Argentine national team stars, received extensive global media coverage, as they were highly tipped to win the World Cup for the third time in its history.

More than 11,000 spectators attended the Argentine national team’s first training session at Al Nahyan Stadium, and interacted enthusiastically with the players.
 The UAE national team and their Argentine counterpart played a friendly match at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium at Al Jazira Club on 16 November, 2022, before Argentina headed to Doha to participate in the 2022 World Cup.

The friendly match also formed part of the UAE team’s preparations for upcoming events such as the 25th Gulf Cup, which was held in Basra in January 2023, and the 2023 Asian Cup Finals.

The Argentine national team defeated the UAE national team by five clean goals. The goals of the match for Argentina came courtesy of Julián Alvarez in the 17th minute, Ángel Di María's double in the 25th and 36th minutes, Lionel Messi in the 44th minute, and Joaquin Correa in the 60th minute.

All tickets for the match were sold out within a few hours as soon as they were put on sale to the public more than a month before the match date.

The Argentine camp in Abu Dhabi witnessed a large Argentine media turnout and also made news on various international media outlets.

The Argentine national team played the friendly match against the UAE national team at the end of its camp in Abu Dhabi, securing an unbeaten record of 35 consecutive matches since 2019.

By winning the match, the Argentine national team, the 2021 Copa América title holder led by coach Lionel Scaloni, equaled the record set by the Italian national team for the number of matches without defeat.