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It Sure Looks Like Lionel Messi Is Coming to the U.S.

Justin Ray
·3 min read

Lionel Messi is heading to the 305.

Widely considered one of the best soccer players in history and a current top free agent in the game, the seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or award has announced that he will be joining Inter Miami, an M.L.S. team part-owned by David Beckham, in his next career move.

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“I made the decision that I am going to go to Miami,” Messi told Spanish news outlets Sport and Mundo Deportivo, The New York Times reports. “I still haven’t closed it 100 percent. I’m missing some things, but we decided to continue the path.”

Messi owns a home in Miami, and the thinking is that the soccer legend will be able to generate new, lucrative sponsorship opportunities, according to the publication. But Inter Miami also offered him a lot of incentives, including a roster spot that wouldn’t be limited by M.L.S. salary rules, an ownership stake in the team once his playing career concludes, and revenue-sharing agreements with Adidas and Apple.

Speaking of the tech company, Apple signed a $2.5 billion deal with M.L.S. to become the league’s exclusive broadcaster last year, The Wall Street Journal reports. Spanning over 100 countries and lasting a decade, the agreement allows Apple TV+ subscribers to watch games through an M.L.S. Season Pass. Under Messi’s deal, he will receive a cut of all new subscriptions to the league’s service.

During the interview with the Spanish outlets, Messi said he may have gone back to Barcelona following the end of his contract with his most recent team, Paris St.-Germain, The New York Times reports. The soccer superstar “obviously really wanted to return,” he said, and had discussed the matter with the club’s manager, Xavi Hernández, and its president, Joan Laporta. However, Messi decided against the move because “I heard they had to sell players or lower salaries and the truth is that I did not want to go through that,” he said.

Messi’s Miami deal, should it be finalized, may be disappointing to Saudi Arabia, which reportedly made him a mega-offer. The country pays him to serve as a spokesperson and has been trying to build its national league by signing well-known soccer names such as Cristiano Ronaldo. However, the country did recently score a major victory by landing a merger between LIV Golf league, which the country funds, and the PGA Tour.

But if you’re a closer follower of Messi’s social-media posts, his decision may not have been a total surprise. When Beckham announced his intention to bring a M.L.S. team to South Florida back in 2018, WSJ reported that Messi congratulated him and commented in a post: “And who knows, maybe in a few years you can give me a ring.”

Sounds like we’re about to find out if the superstar duo can achieve just that.

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