When Messi first stepped onto the field for Miami one month ago, he was seen as the potential savior of a last-place team. The question was just how long it would take.
The answer: Not long at all. Just 40 minutes passed between Messi’s introduction and his first, game-winning goal for Miami. Twenty-eight days, 23 hours and 28 minutes passed between that goal and his 10th, a superb opener in Saturday’s Leagues Cup final that Miami won on penalties – the first trophy in the club’s short history.
Each goal, and each victory that went along with it, has altered the trajectory of the club.
“There are moments in the game where he’s just unplayable,” Nashville coach Gary Smith said. “There are windows where it’s almost impossible to deal with what he is wanting to do.”
It is a story that has been told all seven times Messi has played for Inter Miami.
For 22 minutes and 57 seconds of Saturday night’s Leagues Cup final, Nashville SC did a better job of containing Messi than any previous Leagues Cup opponent. He was unable to find the ball in dangerous spots as Nashville sat in an organized defensive block and invited Miami’s other players to beat them. Messi moved from the left wing to the right, up on the forward line, and dropped deep into midfield to find a way to get on the ball.
But, then, once he did, he only needed three seconds, and four touches. One to control the ball, another to evade Nashville defender Walker Zimmerman. A third to keep control when Zimmerman got a foot on it. His fourth touch powered a shot between converging defenders and into the upper corner of the net.
This is how quickly the fortunes of a team can change after a long and bumpy road.
Club co-owner David Beckham first announced he was triggering his option to bring an expansion team to MLS in 2014. It took another four years for him and owner Jorge Mas to announce that Inter Miami was officially coming. Upon starting play two years later, COVID-19 delayed their ability to play in front of fans. A cheating scandal a year later caused further disruption.
It felt like a bit of poetic justice that the first trophy came against the team that entered the league with them in 2020. In a sold-out stadium of more than 30,000, those early days of launching in the midst of a pandemic seemed a distant memory for both teams.
“We hope it’s the first of many trophies,” a beaming Mas said afterward. “It was a spectacular night. … I think tonight is a vindication of the work that we’ve put into this project.”
Messi’s one month in the U.S. has changed the nature of the question. It’s no longer about how quickly he can change Inter Miami. It’s how much he can change Miami — and MLS, and perhaps American soccer as well.
GO DEEPER
Leagues Cup: Messi’s impact, the controversies and more
Messi scored off a freekick, then wanted more. (Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images)
Among Messi’s many highlights from the past month was a freekick in the round of 16 against FC Dallas. When the ball ripped into the top corner of the net in Frisco, Texas, Messi’s teammates raced toward him. People in the crowd in blue-and-white and pink or black No. 10 jerseys jumped and cheered.
Messi, though, sprinted toward midfield waving his arm. He wanted more. The competitiveness has not faded.
“I’ve found him with the same desire to compete and to win,” said Miami’s new manager Tata Martino, who was brought on alongside Messi, having previously worked with him at Barcelona and with the Argentina national team.
Messi is the superstar, of course. He’s counted on to deliver game-changing moments and take the team on his back when they need it. He’s also taken on the role of protector. Against Orlando City, he didn’t shy from tackles and scraps. It was the same against Philadelphia when Jose Martinez kicked at Noah Allen on the ground in the second half. Messi jumped in to protect the young defender, and one source close to the team said Messi confronted Martinez about it again in the tunnel after the game.
He’s also embraced just being one of the guys.
Around the facility, Messi has found ways to blend in to the group as best he can. He jumped into the team WhatsApp to offer up tickets to his own unveiling when a teammate needed them and gifted the team with black-and-pink Inter Miami Beats by Dre headphones.
“He could have come in and said I’m doing stuff my way and this that’s how it’s gonna be,” Yedlin said. “But he’s come in and completely mixed in with the group, mixed in with the old guys, mixed with the young guys, everything just like a regular player. Obviously I had a ridiculous amount of respect for him as a player before I played with him, but I think more so now is just even more respect for him as a human being. He’s an unbelievable human being.”
GO DEEPER
Messi has turned free kicks into an art form that confounds goalkeepers
Those around the team said Messi’s humility may be what has surprised them most so far. He often thanks team employees for things they do to help him out, whether it’s extra efforts to provide security or simply to make sure the little things are taken care of. On Saturday night, he sprinted to celebrate when goalkeeper Drake Callender made the winning save after scoring the winning penalty. And after his teammates had tossed him into the air in celebration, when the team crowded on stage to lift the trophy, Messi took off his captain’s armband and put it on Yedlin, who had served as captain before Messi’s debut, so that Yedlin could lift the trophy with him.
For the players in the Miami locker room, it’s still somewhat surreal to share a locker room with Messi, let alone his fellow former Barcelona additions Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. Yedlin jokes that they are players he grew up rooting for, and he’s considered one of the old guys in the room. Benjamin Cremaschi, the 18-year-old homegrown player, said he tries not to think of the pressure to perform with them in training; he’s just trying to enjoy it all.
“These 30 days have been pretty intense,” Cremaschi said Saturday night, his hair soaked in the champagne he is not legally allowed to drink. “So I really haven’t had time to sit down and really think about what’s happening. But it’s honestly just been an amazing 30 days, it’s been an amazing year, and hopefully we’ll keep on growing.”
They won’t have to wait long for the opportunity. Inter Miami travels to Cincinnati on Wednesday for the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, two wins from another trophy. Mas said Messi was already talking about it during the postgame celebrations.
“He’s a competitive beast,” Mas said.
Messi celebrates with his family fieldside. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
On Aug. 17, exactly one month after his initial press conference as an Inter Miami player was originally scheduled (and eventually postponed), Messi stepped to the dais to meet the American-based media for the first time.
That the first planned press conference didn’t take place in July was indicative of the chaos of Messi’s first days in the U.S., and also the give-and-take that comes with the notoriously media-shy Messi. A month later, while the spotlight had not dimmed, the reality around the move to the U.S. had changed. Inter Miami was unbeaten in six consecutive games and was set to play in a final. Messi had nine goals in those six games. He had been greeted as a hero in most places he went, whether it was Miami-area stores and restaurants or the stadium in Dallas. Some sources around the team said even Messi was surprised by just how well the first four weeks had gone.
Everyone around Messi pointed to how happy he was; that you could see it in the way he was playing on the field. Martino talked about how Messi had removed la mochila, the backpack, or weight, off his shoulders after lifting the World Cup with Argentina.
“Leo está suelto,” said his former World Cup teammate and Tigres goalkeeper Nahuel Guzmán. Leo is loose.
“Ahora camina y va en el aire.” Now he walks on air.
GO DEEPER
Two more goals, stunning free kick and a late comeback – Messi is everything MLS hoped for
Behind the microphone during Thursday’s press conference in a room packed with 80 media members, that lightness was evident despite it not being his preferred type of stage. Messi came across as comfortable, even as he demurred from being a sort of talisman for the growth of American soccer. He considered many things when he came to the U.S., he said, but carrying the hopes of a sport in this country wasn’t one of them, he said. He was just here to play soccer, to enjoy doing the thing he has always loved to do.
“I’ve said this from the beginning: I chose this city,” Messi said. “I wanted to be here. It was a decision that I made over time. It wasn’t a last-minute decision, which has made it easier on everyone. We’re where we want to be. It was our decision. When I left for Paris it was something that I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to leave Barcelona. That was a last-minute decision. I had to adapt to something new after living (in Barcelona) my entire life. It was difficult, both from the sporting side and living in a new city.
“What’s happening to me now is the complete opposite.”
Messi has found joy in the normalcy that he wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere. The ability to grocery shop or visit restaurants — even if, in the end, there are fans waiting outside the doors to photograph him.
Hints of his comfort in Miami have been evident even in the public eye. After goals he’s scored in Miami’s home stadium, Messi has turned toward the on-field suites where his family sits and celebrated with nods toward Marvel superheroes. First, it was Thor summoning his hammer. Then Black Panther. Most recently, it was Spiderman.
“My three sons are still on vacation, have not started school yet, so every night we watch Marvel superhero movies,” Messi told the Miami Herald. “They came up with the idea and asked that whenever I have a game and score a goal, I do a Marvel superhero celebration. That’s how it started, and we continued that ritual. Each time we watched a new movie, we would practice a goal celebration. But I only do them for home games, when the kids are here, near me, so we can share those moments. When I see them in the stands, that is when I do them.”
The happiness off the field most certainly is leading to good moments on it, as well.
Messi was finally introduced after an epic storm (Arturo Jimenez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
It is easy to forget how different things felt just four weeks ago, before Messi was introduced to a rain-soaked crowd in Fort Lauderdale. There was a feeling that his presence with an Inter Miami shirt needed to be seen to be believed — even for the owners.
Messi announced in June that he was coming to Miami, but weeks passed between that interview and his arrival in Florida. There was almost a sense of relief when he stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac at a private airport a few days before the event at which he was to be unveiled.
“When we knew Leo had landed, when we knew it was real and when we knew he was real,” Beckham said last month. “That, for us, was a moment.”
Even then, another few days were needed to get the contract signed, make an official announcement that he had joined Inter Miami, and finally, to present him to Miami fans and the world in a glitzy media event.
The Unveil, as it was billed, was supposed to be the perfect mix of showmanship and hype. The dark rain clouds over the stadium, and the lightning, thunder and the high winds, threatened to ruin the party.
They didn’t.
“This is holy water,” Mas proclaimed as the rain continued to fall when the event began. “Es agua bendita.”
It was a dramatic statement. It may also have been prophetic.
Little has gone wrong since those storms passed over the stadium on July 16. Over the last month, Messi has not just scored goals, he has changed games. He has entertained. People have come from around the country to watch him play, and each night in which he’s stepped on the field, he’s given them their money’s worth.
He has somehow over-delivered on expectations that began with talk of holy water.
GO DEEPER
Inside the Lionel Messi to Inter Miami deal — seeing off Saudis, equity offers and Beckham and Co.’s secret trip
The first free kick goal against Cruz Azul, a stoppage-time winner that started this remarkable run. Two more goals against Atlanta United. A fiery performance and another goal in a win over Orlando City. An even more insane game-tying free kick against FC Dallas. Another tally against Charlotte. The long-distance goal against Philadelphia. And then, on Saturday night, the ridiculous finish against Nashville, maybe his best yet since joining Miami.
“People keep saying (it’s like a movie),” Beckham said Saturday night. “Every time Leo scores one of these goals, every time Busi makes one of these passes, every time Jordi (Alba) makes one of these runs, people say it, and it’s the biggest compliment anyone can give these players because it is like a movie. You watch these players play and it’s emotional watching them because everything about their play is beautiful, everything about their mannerisms is beautiful, everything about them as individuals off the pitch is beautiful. So when they play it’s emotional.”
It felt a bit like Saturday night was the end of something instead of the beginning. That Messi’s first games were built around a knockout tournament allowed this last month to be tied neatly with a bow at the end. It is, of course, just the start. And while Messi may not want the charge of carrying anything more on his back — the growth of the sport in the U.S. or the evolution of the league — his presence here has already started to have that effect.
(Photo: CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
