Liverpool and Man United spearhead post-pandemic top club Asian tours
Next week will mark the beginning of a busy preseason for Manchester United and Liverpool as European teams anxious to reclaim lucrative markets make their first trips back to the Asia-Pacific area since the pandemic.
The English Premier League's top teams square off against Jurgen Klopp's team on Tuesday in Bangkok. Jurgen Klopp's team nearly completed an unprecedented quadruple last season before being pushed by Manchester City to the title and losing the Champions League final at Real Madrid.
Christophe Galtier, who was named this week as Mauricio Pochettino's replacement, will lead Paris Saint-Germain and its key players Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe on their trip to Japan later this month.
When Tottenham Hotspur plays two games in South Korea the next week, Son Heung-min, the most successful player in Asia and winner of the Premier League Golden Boot, is expected to be welcomed with open arms.
Additionally, after being hampered by virus limitations since 2020, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, and Leeds United will fly to Singapore and Australia to re-connect with their international supporters.
"Over the past two years, it has been a really challenging time for all clubs," said PSG Asia-Pacific general manager Sébastien Wasels, whose team will play three games against J- League opponents.
"We understand that not being able to witness the team in person was difficult for our followers throughout the world."
When Liverpool and Manchester United square off at Bangkok's 51,000-seat Rajamangala Stadium, Thai supporters of the two teams will get an unprecedented opportunity to witness the legendary rivals close up.But when it is revealed on Friday morning that a destabilized Cristiano Ronaldo won't be traveling with United because the striker was given additional time off to attend to a family matter, many people will be dissatisfied.
The "Greatest Game in Asia"
The event will be "the largest football game ever in Asia, bar none," according to Asian sports marketing specialist Marcus Luer, who negotiated the agreement to bring the teams to Thailand.
No other football team, or Korean pop group, for that matter, would be more significant than these two clubs coming here, he claimed.
The cheapest tickets cost 5,000 Thai Baht ($140), making it prohibitively expensive for fans to witness stars like Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool or Bruno Fernandes and Harry Maguire of United.
Bhuwit Panjarattanakorn, a 27-year-old fan of Manchester United, said he was excited to photograph the players at their hotel but was not considered purchasing a ticket because they were "too much Dear."
Even before it was known that Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn't be playing, he said, "It's simply a friendly game and it doesn't guarantee you'll see a player like Cristiano Ronaldo play the whole game." the aircraft for Bangkok.
After the game, Manchester United will go to Australia to take on Melbourne Victory, Crystal Palace, and Aston Villa.
While Leeds United and Villa will compete in the Queensland Champions Cup in Australia alongside the local team Brisbane Roar, Liverpool will play Crystal Palace in Singapore.
Tottenham will play a K-League select team in Seoul and Spain's Sevilla in Suwon. Tottenham has captains of both the men's and women's national teams of South Korea.
'Good chance,'
It will be more like a "true competitive game," according to Luer, because European teams will be facing each other rather than local teams.
The third Premier League match of the year features a match between Liverpool and Manchester United, so it's not too far off, he said.
This is a fantastic chance for the players or the coach to step it up and assess where they are.
In order for clubs to expand their brand in an area that Luer claims is "always very significant for any football club in the world," commercial options are essential.
PSG is visiting Japan for the first time since 1995, but they already have a Tokyo office and are active in the city's fashion, esports, and retail industries.
Wasels calls Japan a "strategic country" with six million PSG supporters and claims this summer's tour is "the final piece of the puzzle."
In terms of brand development, "Japan has always been very fundamental to what we intended to do since the inception of our initiative," he said.
I heard that some fans in Japan were upset when some clubs showed up without the biggest stars, so we'll bring the best players, not a B squad, he continued.
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