Lionel Messi had previously been linked with a potential move to Major League Soccer and despite interest from his former club Barcelona and continued interest from clubs in Saudi Arabia, the Argentine legend is taking his talents to North America.
Messi will sign with Inter Miami, the club and player both announced Wednesday. The 2022 World Cup winner will leave Paris Saint-Germain later this month as a free agent before making the move to MLS as the league’s biggest-ever signing.
“After winning the World Cup and not being able to go to Barca, it was time to go to the American league to experience football in a different way and enjoy the day-to-day, obviously with the same responsibility and desire to win,” Messi told Diario Sport in an interview.
Messi will reportedly receive a cut of revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV’s MLS Season Pass streaming service, as well as part-ownership of Inter Miami, according to ESPN.
Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal reportedly offered Messi a massive $300 million per year deal, which could’ve seen him reunited with longtime La Liga rival Cristiano Ronaldo in the Saudi Professional League.
The 35-year-old recently helped PSG capture the Ligue 1 crown in 2022-23, registering 21 goals and 20 assists across all competitions. However, the French giants were unable to lift a UCL title in Messi’s two seasons at the Parc Des Princes.
Messi previously starred for Barcelona, racking up 672 goals and 303 assists in 778 combined appearances for the La Liga club. A seven-time Ballon D’or winner, Messi lifted 35 major trophies during his time at Barcelona, winning four UCL titles and 10 La Liga crowns.
He excelled for Argentina at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, leading Lionel Scaloni’s squad to a first title since 1986.
It is undetermined when Messi would begin his Inter Miami career, but reports suggest in July during the upcoming Leagues Cup. The Herons have struggled for majority of 2023, sitting last in the Eastern Conference and recently firing manager Phil Neville last week.
Inter Miami remains in the U.S. Open Cup though, facing off with USL Championship side Birmingham Legion FC in quarterfinal action on Wednesday night.
Messi’s move is the latest major acquisition by MLS over the league’s history. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Xherdan Shaqiri, Lorenzo Insigne, and David Beckham are just some of the key names that have made the move from Europe to MLS at the latter stages of their careers.
I just did a Messi effect ticket comparison for the Red Bulls. A week before they play Miami in august they host DC. Tickets are available for &39 with most being $49. For their game against Miami tickets are available for $650
I hope what happens now is opening up the purse strings.
Still keep the 3 DP’s and young DP rules. But make the hard cap at 25 million the rest of this season and next season. After that maybe increase by 5 million dollar increments every two years until next CBA. A hard cap increase is a must to get better players in this league. Still have rules in place to protect homegrown young players to get first team minuets and chances. The time is now to reconfigure the salary rules.
Re Apple TV,
but why in God’s name would fans pay though the nose for Yet Another Streaming Service, and surrender their personal data for next to nothing, just to see Yet Another Aging Former Star?
MLS _could have_ continued to make as many games as possible available to local viewers _over the air,_ so that young players and fans could still have followed their teams, even in a down economy, even for low-income families, and local stations and advertisers could have benefited. But no, the powers that be chose to wall off soccer in America as a luxury product, and thereby actively turn their backs on a huge potential viewing audience, possibly for a decade or more to come.
I for one am not going to hand over my personal data as a cheap income stream to Tim Cook, just for MLS. It’s not that good a league yet, and Messi isn’t going to make it that much better, even though he was right to spurn the evil Saudis.
If someday the investors were to decide that providing the widest possible (on-air, free) access is the best route to _growing soccer coverage and viewership,_ in a country where soccer is still a niche sport, that could yet change. Messi himself could make it happen, by devoting, say, a mere tenth of his income to subsidizing free soccer broadcasts in the US.
But if everyone involved just keeps pursuing their own financial self-interest, even when like Messi they already have more money than they could ever possibly need, then there’s absolutely no reason for US soccer fans to show any solidarity with them. Much less buy any overpriced streaming subscriptions to watch the worst team in the league.
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Barcelona president with sour grapes taking a slight dig at MLS. He isn’t wrong with his back handed statement, but Barca are in no state as a club to be taking digs at others.
Look for all MLS teams to play on grass now. No city is going to miss out on hosting Messi due to him not wanting to play on the crap field turf.
MLS is going to change for the better now.
Wow…..good observation!
I know it’s bigger but no one put in grass for Zlatan or Beckham. The places that have turf are generally the NFL stadiums like ATL, NE, and Sea. Those teams don’t want grass for American football and the grass over the top of turf is usually a nightmare. They’ll just hope no one realizes he might sit out and still buys tickets.
This is awesome for Miami and MLS, BUT its going to be REALLY rough if Messi doesn’t have quality around him. Wednesday night was Miami’s fourth in a row defeat which put them among the bottom of the Eastern Conference (5W-10L-0D). Even at 35, Messi has still proven that he is STILL among the best in the World but his job in Miami at that age would be to ONLY set up QUALITY teammates and bury the ball in the back of the net (and he’ll need good service to do that!!!)……..not to run around and chase the game or play defense!!!
Also. Inter Miami need a quality high profile coach. Phil Neville just can’t seem to get it done. Fans unveiled a banner calling for Neville’s exit while also raining boos after the NYRB game. IMO a quality coach with a few ADDITIONAL quality players to provide the RIGHT service…….and Messi will be absolutely unstoppable in MLS
They fired Neville last week. (Maybe this one of those weird cases when they update the article and brings back old posts)
This is America.
We have athletes, some of them GOATs, retire and come back all the time.
Michael Jordan, Brett Favre, Tom Brady, Mario Lemieux, George Foreman. Landon Donovan, Rob Gronkowski. It’s a tradition here.
It’s as American as alcohol, tobacco and firearms.
When Leo runs into Kellyn Acosta. Walker Zimmerman and Aaron Long and gets embarrassed then he can regret his decision.
He was the best player at the WC last year and finished the season with 20 goals and assists. Please explain why you think he is “retiring” here. You think he’s going to come her and loaf? Are you kidding me?
I really wish MLS would quit doing this. Not helping the “we are not a retirement league anymore” narrative. Let him go to Saudi and spend that money on a lot of good players.
At some point, though, you gotta go with the old Vegas adage: there is no such thing as bad publicity.
MLS actualyl has a decent product that’s getting better each year, what’s holding it back is name-brand recognition. It draws fans to the stadium, it does not get viewers on TV.
IMHO, let the Eurosnobs sneer. They’re going to sneer regardless. We might as well scoop up casual viewers when the opportunity presents and convert some of them to fans, and especially with the World Cup coming, this is a golden opportunity to do that.
I hope it works.
He was the best player at the WC last year and finished the season with 20 goals and assists. Please explain why you think he is “retiring” here. You think he’s going to come her and loaf? Are you kidding me?
Because he’s 35.
This is America.
We have athletes, some of them GOATs, retire and come back all the time.
Michael Jordan, Brett Favre, Tom Brady, Mario Lemieux, George Foreman. Landon Donovan, Rob Gronkowski. It’s a tradition here.
It’s as American as alcohol, tobacco and firearms.
When Leo runs into Kellyn Acosta. Walker Zimmerman and Aaron Long and gets embarrassed then he can regret his decision.
Any league in the world would be happy to have Messi. The retirement league argument carries very little weight here
Why would I care what “carries weight here”?
I think this is an epic publicity move, not a team-building move. I’m tired of it. The retirement league reputation is real and it’s there for a reason. This is so plainly obvious. MLS wants to bootstrap itself by filling seats with big names. As it has for 20 years. I would rather see it distribute money evenly to create better teams. This is a thoroughly legitimate argument.
Dave P.
You have a 100% legit argument.
The thing is you’re right ” MLS wants to bootstrap itself by filling seats with big names. As it has for 20 years. “.
They have always been about the money. Their model is the NFL which all about creating a family friendly entertainment experience that they can monetize.
It won’t be long before the talent level in MLS will be equivalent with the bigger leagues.
But this drive to be the soccer equivalent of the NFL, that will always set them apart, unless the Euros go with that Super League thing.
Both national and international viewership of any MLS game with Messi will skyrocket. Sales of jerseys and all sorts of MLS related gear will rise. MLS will be able to sell rights to a lot more countries. Advertising rates and revenues will also go way up. Messi[‘s presence will also attract other good players. I don’t see how there is any downside to this.
Guarantee you this turns out to be a loan to Barcelona and Messi will actually be an Inter Miami player in the summer of 2024. And Inter will play their home games at the Hard Rock Stadium in 2024.
He wants that AppleTv money though. If he leaves they aren’t going to get more subscribers.