– DANGER FAKE NEWS!!!! Jorge Messi had seen enough. For months, rumors had swirled about his son, Lionel, who is unemployed when his contract with Paris Saint-Germain expires this summer. Messi turns 36 in June. With the WC title in Qatar, he secured his status as the best of all time in the eyes of many. No one knows if he will stay at PSG, or where he will go. But on Friday, March 17, Jorge had read three reports that he wanted to deny: 1) Messi left a training session after arguing with coach Christophe Galtier 2) PSG says no to Messi’s demands 3) Messi wants 600 million euros a year to play for Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia. – How long will they continue to lie??? Jorge wrote. Maybe the reports were wrong. But there were other rumors that Jorge did not deny. Everyone is talking about Messi’s next move. There is talk that Barcelona wants him back after the tearful divorce almost two years ago. Some have thought that he wants to go home to Rosario and his old club Newell’s Old Boys. But Barça is struggling financially, and four weeks ago someone attacked a supermarket in Rosario owned by the family of Messi’s wife, Antonela Roccuzzo. They peppered the store with 14 gunshots and left a message. – Messi, we are waiting for you. Whatever the motive, Messi is unlikely to go to Rosario now. Teams in the Middle East can put money on the table. But there is one club that has long been linked to Messi. It is three years old. It is located in the United States. And the man behind it is David Beckham. David Beckham has a past as a club player in the USA for LA Galaxy. Now he is a co-owner of Inter Miami, the club that was founded in 2018. Photo: Lynne Sladky / AP Inter Miami are open about what they dream of. In February, the team’s coach, Phil Neville, was asked by The Times newspaper if they were chasing Messi. – I can’t deny it, said Neville. At first glance, the transition seems impossible. Messi is still among the world’s best. Inter Miami is not even among the best teams in the United States. But several media have written about meetings between Jorge Messi and the owners. The website Get French Football News has cited an interview from L’Équipe, the biggest sports newspaper in France, where agent Jérôme Meary claims that the first meetings between Jorge and Inter Miami took place as early as June 2021. Lionel Messi visits Miami often. He owns an apartment in Florida. When Beckham announced in January 2018 that he was going to found a club in Miami, Messi posted a video in which he said congratulations. – Who knows… added Messi. – In a few years you may be able to call me. The Beckham Law Beckham knows what a star can do for soccer in the United States. In 2007, he shocked everyone by leaving Real Madrid for LA Galaxy, in Los Angeles, to become an ambassador for “soccer”. He was not the first icon. In 1975, Pelé had signed for the New York Cosmos. The team struggled, the audience record the previous season was around 8,000 and the pitch at the stadium was so worn that they had to paint it green. But Pelé changed everything. When he retired in 1977, he was series champion and a star in the USA as well. The New York Cosmos averaged more than 42,000 spectators per game. In his last match, more than 70,000 turned up to say goodbye. Brazilian football legend Pelé became league champion with the New York Cosmos. Photo: Ray Stubblebine / AP Pelé opened the door for names such as Franz Beckenbauer, George Best and Johan Cruyff. But in a country obsessed with baseball, basketball and American football, the league only survived until 1984. Then Major League Soccer (MLS) started up in 1996. When Beckham arrived in 2007, the teams had a salary cap. No one could afford to pay what he wanted, so MLS introduced the “Beckham Rule”: Each team can pay three players as much as they want. These three exceptions are now known as “designated players”. Beckham also received a special offer. In MLS there is no relegation. The members are permanent, and new teams can buy in. MLS allowed him, sometime in the future, to buy a team for $25 million, one-sixth of the original price. Beckham became popular. Sales of uniforms, tickets and sponsorship agreements increased. Striker Alan Gordon has told about what it was like to play for the LA Galaxy. – Before Beckham, we used to fly in “Group C” with Southwest Airlines. When we strolled through the airport, either no one recognized us, or no one cared. When he arrived, we went from playing in front of 10,000 spectators to 60-70,000, Gordon told The Guardian newspaper. David Beckham is naturally a popular man among American soccer supporters. Photo: ROBYN BECK / AFP – I never give up When Beckham gave up in 2013, he took up the offer. He wanted a club in Miami. The glamorous city on the southeast coast of Florida is packed with famous teams in major sports. It has an ATP Masters 1000 tennis tournament and a Formula 1 race. It’s also home to a sea of soccer-loving Latin Americans, and a vacation paradise for soccer players. Still, the city hadn’t had a soccer team since 2001, when the Miami Fusion collapsed after four years. So it has been difficult to generate interest in a team in the city. This is particularly challenging with Latin American fans, says Felipe Cárdenas, a reporter who covers MLS for the website The Athletic. – They come from countries where football is a religion. They have supported teams there that have belonged to the family for generations. They are used to a certain standard, history and culture, says Cárdenas to news. – I think it has been difficult for South Americans to become real fans of MLS. It is still a young league that is growing and getting new teams. The lack of history is one of the biggest challenges for MLS to become popular among Hispanics in the United States, especially in Florida. The application to buy a team was difficult for Beckham. He struggled to find local investors, searched for a long time for a stadium and faced opposition from local politicians. Only in January 2018 could he announce that he was going to found a club in Miami. – There were times when we thought, “This is not going to happen”. It’s too difficult. There are too many obstacles in the way. But I never give up, Beckham said according to The Guardian. English football legend David Beckham is part owner of Inter Miami. Photo: Lynne Sladky / AP The new team was to enter MLS in the 2020 season. Names, uniforms and players were missing. But Beckham had his eyes on something else. – I think Miami needs a star, said Beckham. MLS on break Soon the details came into place. Name: Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami, or simply Inter Miami. Suits: Pink. Logo: Two herons crossing their legs in an “M”. On the ownership side, Beckham had brought in Jorge and José Mas, two local tycoons in the construction business. But neither Jorge nor José had worked with football before. And soon the problems began. The owners wanted a home court on the coast in the city centre. They ended up in Fort Lauderdale, half an hour’s drive north of Miami. The coach was Diego Alonso, a former striker from Uruguay. He was not the first choice, says Cárdenas. – They went after Marcelo Gallardo. They were linked to Zinédine Zidane. All the big names were supposed to go to Inter Miami. And then they ended up with Alonso, who had been very successful in Mexico but was not a “home run” signing. They didn’t get a superstar either. With Beckham’s contacts, they were linked with many names – Edinson Cavani, Luka Modrić, David Silva – without anyone turning up. But Beckham was able to build a team. When Inter Miami debuted in MLS in March 2020, they had mostly taken names from other teams in the United States. They played two games. They both lost. Then came the pandemic. Empty stands characterized football around the world in 2020 and 2021. Photo: Jasen Vinlove / Reuters MLS was put on pause for four months. Inter Miami lost the next three games as well. Two of the few bright spots were that they got some stars. In August came midfielder Blaise Matuidi, a World Cup winner with France, and in September landed Gonzalo Higuaín, someone with a golden past at Real Madrid, Napoli and Juventus. But the duo did not lift the team much. In his debut against the Philadelphia Union, Higuaín burned a penalty and Miami lost 3–0. The divisions in MLS are divided into East and West. Inter Miami ended up in 10th place among 14 teams in the East. In the qualifiers for the playoffs, they lost 3–0 to Nashville. This was no team for a superstar. But if Beckham was broken down, he must have cheered up when Messi, a few days before the New Year, chatted with the Spanish TV channel La Sexta. – I want to play in the USA one day, said Messi. The rule violation Beckham knew he had to change something before the 2021 season. He replaced Alonso with Phil Neville, his former team-mate at Manchester United, who had coached at United and Valencia as well as head coach of the England women’s national team. This was Neville’s first job as head coach of a club team. Phil Neville directs his Intter Miami. Photo: Sam Navarro / Reuters Inter Miami didn’t improve much, but the results weren’t the biggest problem. In May, MLS declared that the club had violated financial rules. Each team in MLS receives “Target Allocation Money”, a sum they can spend on salaries other than three “designated players”. In recent years, the sum has been around five million dollars. But now MLS claimed, among other things, that Inter Miami had brought in four “designated players”. The league fined the club and gave them about $2.2 million less in salary budget for 2022 and 2023. The penalty was a disaster for Inter Miami. They had to sell and loan out a number of players. That season they finished 11th in the East. Neville was given an almost impossible task, according to Than Harrington, who runs the Inter Miami Podcast. – All teams with such major changes in the stable and financial sanctions are doomed to suffer from weak performances, says Harrington to news. – It really hit the club hard. They had to start all over again, says Cárdenas. The dream of Messi seemed more distant than ever. – The greatest signing of all time Fortunately for Beckham, he has never been alone in wanting Messi. The head of MLS, Don Garber, is rubbing his hands only at the rumors surrounding Messi and Inter Miami. When Messi played three friendlies for Barcelona in the United States in 2017, two of them were watched by more than 80,000 fans. The third was in Miami and was seen by 66,000. Recently, MLS has entered into an agreement with Apple to stream matches online. It runs over ten years and is worth 2.5 billion dollars. So MLS could need Messi, says Cárdenas. – It would have been huge for MLS. I think the league needs that kind of impact. Now that they have the deal with Apple in place, who will be the front man for the league and interest the audience globally? With Messi you will dominate the front pages as long as he plays there. Lionel Messi spends his club days in France’s Paris Saint-Germain, but it is currently uncertain where the new Argentine world champion will be in August. Photo: STEPHANE MAHE / Reuters In 2022, Neville finally got things going. Inter Miami came in 6th place, and although they again stumbled in the play-off qualifiers, with 3–0 against New York City, the future seems brighter. Last year, Inter Miami was also allowed to build a new stadium in Miami Freedom Park after a long political battle. Storstuen will be ready in 2025. But they need a superstar. Inter Miami had the lowest average attendance of all 28 teams in MLS last year, with 12,637. With Messi, that number will change. According to Harrington, the fans are ecstatic that Messi can come to the club. – Having said that, there is cautious optimism, because the fans know that teams like PSG and Barça want him. We know we are outsiders, but just the fact that we are an option for him is fantastic, says Harrington. Salary could be an issue, but Garber has said MLS needs to think “outside the box” with Messi. Some believe that Messi could become a co-owner of Inter Miami, or get property around the new arena. And Inter Miami is making no attempt to dampen expectations. Higuaín and Matuidi have resigned, which makes room for a new “Designated Player”. The local newspaper Miami Herald has noted that jersey 10 – Messi’s number – is vacant. Earlier in March, Neville spoke to The Athletic about the possibility of them signing the Argentine. – I think it would probably be the biggest signing in history, Neville said. Cárdenas agrees as long as it is about the United States. – I think Pelé is the biggest signing the US has seen. He was the best player of all time at that time. Messi I think would be even bigger. We are in a different time now. We all understand what Messi has achieved. It doesn’t seem like any player will beat his numbers. And he has just won a WC title which has raised him to a level that no one else can touch, says Cárdenas. In a few months, Messi will have to decide his future. The fans in Miami are waiting anxiously. Garber probably holds his breath. Beckham must have called Messi a long time ago. Now only Messi has to call him back. – – – – Sources: Buenos Aires Times, CNN, CBS, Front Office Sports, Get French Football News, MLS, Soccer Stadium Digest, The Athletic, The Guardian, The Times.
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The dream of Messi – Sport Langlesing
