{"id":13449,"date":"2011-12-14T15:30:37","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T15:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/lionel-messi-xavi-and-other-barcelona-players-meet-with-young-fukushima-refugees\/"},"modified":"2011-12-14T15:30:37","modified_gmt":"2011-12-14T15:30:37","slug":"lionel-messi-xavi-and-other-barcelona-players-meet-with-young-fukushima-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/lionel-messi-xavi-and-other-barcelona-players-meet-with-young-fukushima-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi, Xavi and other Barcelona players meet with young Fukushima refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Players from European champions Barcelona spent time on Tuesday evening with children affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster during a practice session in Yokohama, Japan.<\/p>\n

The children, ranging in age from nine to 18, have lived in Tokyo-area disaster shelters since being displaced by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster that devastated the north-eastern region of the country. Many of them lost relatives, and recovery efforts in and around the ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant are still ongoing.<\/p>\n

“I’m glad we could meet [the children],” said defender Gerard Pique during the gathering.<\/p>\n

“It’s great that we could cheer them up.”<\/p>\n

Star players such as Lionel Messi and Xavi presented their special guests with Barcelona jerseys, each with their own names printed on the back.<\/p>\n

“[Messi] was as cool as I thought he’d be,” said 17-year-old Hikari Niizuma, who shook hands with the two-time Ballon d’Or winner.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I can wash my hands again.”<\/p>\n

Barcelona will play Asian champions Al Sadd in the Club World Cup semi-final on Thursday night in Yokohama’s Nissan Stadium.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Players from European champions Barcelona spent time on Tuesday evening with children affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster during a practice session in Yokohama, Japan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nLionel Messi, Xavi and other Barcelona players meet with young Fukushima refugees - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/14\/lionel-messi-xavi-and-other-barcelona-players-meet-with-young-fukushima-refugees\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Lionel Messi, Xavi and other Barcelona players meet with young Fukushima refugees - 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