India, Dec. 14 -- Kolkata loves football with a devotion that looks glamorous from afar and combustible up close. When a global icon arrives, the city doesn't merely gather; it surges.

And that is where the trouble begins. Not because Kolkata can't handle crowds, but because these visits repeatedly expose a deeper tension: who gets access, and who gets spectacle. Across decades - Pele in the 1970s, Maradona in the 200s, Messi now, the script has stayed eerily familiar: the public pays in money and time, the powerful arrive for proximity, and the gap between the two becomes stark.

The latest Kolkata flare-up around Messi wasn't just about numbers. It was about visibility being denied in plain sight.

What angered people wasn't only that ...