Major League Soccer club Inter Miami signed Argentina international Lionel Messi on a two-and-a-half-year contract a fortnight ago, and the club’s co-owner and President David Beckham is yet to get over the excitement.
The 36-year-old left Paris Saint-Germain after his contract ended, and Barcelona were keen on bringing him back.
However, their financial struggles made that impossible, and a move to the Saudi Pro League did not appeal to the attacker despite the strong links.
Messi has hit the ground running in the United States, bagging a stoppage-time free-kick in a 2-1 victory for Inter Miami against Cruz Azul, and he followed up with a brace in the 4-0 win over Atlanta United in his next game.
The club’s fortunes on and off the pitch are starting to undergo positive changes, and Beckham has told The Athletic that talks to sign the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner started in September 2019, 20 months after Miami were founded and six months before their first MLS game.
“We got on a plane and flew to Barcelona from London secretly,” revealed the Manchester United legend.
“We snuck into a hotel, met Jorge Messi (Lionel’s father and also his agent) and started the conversation. It purely went, ‘We would love your son to play for our team one day. We know he can’t come yet, but one day we would love to have Leo in Miami’.
“Then obviously Jorge Mas did an incredible job creating a narrative around what he could do for the sport in this country, what he could do for MLS and what he could do for Inter Miami.”
Miami are currently bottom of the Eastern Conference after 22 games, and Messi could not have come at a better time, but whether he can singlehandedly drag the team to the top of the league remains to be seen.
Sergio Busquets has also reunited with Messi at the club and has been a force to reckon with in the middle of the park, while Gerardo Martino has been appointed as manager, replacing Phil Neville a month ago.
The arrival of Messi at Miami and MLS will take the club and league to the next level, and Beckham has done a good job and pulled off a masterstroke by bringing the Argentine to the United States.
