A security officer tries to catch a fan, who ran onto the pitch to hug soccer superstar Lionel Messi during a friendly match at the Worker's Stadium in Beijing on Thursday. [Photo /Xinhua]

Was it a display of youthful courage or simply a case of a foolish young man who broke the rules and should be punished?

A young Chinese pitch invader has stirred heated discussions online after hugging megastar Lionel Messi when he interrupted a friendly between Argentina and Australia in front of over 50,000 spectators at a packed Workers' Stadium in Beijing on Thursday night.

On Friday, police in Chaoyang district of Beijing said in a statement that the 18-year-old fan, surnamed Di, was detained in accordance with the law. The youngster has also been banned from entering stadiums to watch similar games for the next 12 months.

The police said: "Games have rules. … Soccer fans watching games also have rules to follow. Acts that cross the line will also be punished in accordance with the law."

On Thursday evening, during the second half of the friendly match, the young man suddenly jumped from the stands and ran onto the field when Messi was approaching the side boundary.

He rushed to Messi, hugged him and immediately posed for a photo with him.

Shortly afterward, Di was being chased by security guards but managed to high-five Argentina goalkeeper Emi Martinez before running around the whole field and finally being taken away by several guards.

The whole process was witnessed and filmed by spectators in the stadium, most of whom cheered.

The fan did not appear to lose his smile even when he was being carried away by several security guards, some of whom were also smiling.

In a video interview released by the Messi Fan Club's Twitter account after the match, Di apologized for his behavior.

"I hugged Messi this time, but I didn't get a chance to get his auto-graph," he said. "Next time I want to go to Miami and ask Messi for an autograph. But I won't rush to the pitch and repeat today's mistake, it's a wrong thing to do."

The video of the incident rapidly went viral on Chinese social media.

The hashtag "fan rushes to hug Messi on field" on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, had been viewed by 650 million times as of Friday evening.

Most netizens expressed their admiration for the fan's courage because he did what they had wanted to do but dared not to.

At the same time, many netizens also criticized Di for not obeying match regulations and bringing many security risks to the event.

Li Mofan, 27, who witnessed the incident at the stadium after traveling to Beijing from Hefei, Anhui province, with her boyfriend, said she admired Di's courage but his behavior should certainly not be encouraged.

"On the one hand, he is admired because he did something that many people would like to do but dare not do," she said. "On the other hand, this behavior violated the rules."

Liu Xia, 33, a saleswoman in Beijing and a huge fan of Messi, also witnessed the scene. She said that although a large number of people expressed their admiration for the young man online, this did not mean that they supported his behavior.

"His behavior is definitely not worthy of being advocated. After all, it does have security risks and players could have been injured," she said. "However, I think most people praising him are just inspired by the young man's enthusiasm."

Liu said that many people feel that young people often like to do what they want without considering the consequences.

"In reality, people have to consider various factors when they choose to do something they want and they may not have the same courage as Di," said Liu.

"In fact, those netizens are just nostalgic for their own youth," she added.

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