From Pelé to Messi: almost 50 years later the world is once again looking at the revolutionary MLS with envy | CHRONICLE

Already from the name his ambitions were extraterrestrial: Cosmos. The capital of the world lent its glamor to his last name: New York Cosmos. And as owners of the keys, his sponsors, the illustrious record companies of Turkish origin, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün, together with Steve Ross, executive director of Warner, thought of signing with the absolute king on the face of the earth: Pelé. A bet but also a business. In 1971 professional soccer did not exist in the United States, soccer was played there and the matches of their clubs repeated the scenes of Chavo and Quico in the neighborhood. So that the memory of the unexpected victory over England in the 1950 World Cup is not the brief feat of enthusiasts, ten millionaires bet on the dream of the Ertegün Turks: founding a football club that is the symbol of the most cosmopolitan city. They were in the right city and had the right zeros on the accounts.

On December 10, 1970, the team officially registered in the North American Soccer League, let’s say, what is now the MLS, which would start its first official championship the following year. As it was born from the eccentricity of millions, the name gradually became memory: New York Cosmos, New York Cosmos. He won his first title in 1972 —the images of the documentary Once in a lifetime, the extraordinary story of the New York Cosmos are sepia and for that reason, wonderful and urgently sought after— but the bronze of a glass was not business. Americans still preferred the MLB (baseball), NBA (basketball), NFL (American football) or NHL (ice hockey) as fun and spending weekends. In that country, Joe DiMaggio or the cheerleaders ruled.

So Steve Ross, Warner’s CEO and one of those quirky men who’d founded the team, thought this new kingdom lacked a real boss. And he thought of Pelé. It was 1975. Curiously, he was introduced in a June like this, when all roads lead to Lionel Messithe Pelé of today, to Inter Miami of the MLS.

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We Peruvians knew three brief pieces of news about Inter Miami, Messi’s virtual new club: 1. The memory of the 4-0 defeat that hit the ‘U’ in the summer of 2022, when Gregorio Pérez was about to leave the club due to a heart condition. 2. The 2007 category boy Gabriel Alonso, with dual nationality (Peruvian and Argentine), played for Inter Miami Sub 17, was a winger and could be a winger on the left. 3. The healthy decision of David Beckham, one of the owners of Inter Miami, who around 2013 announced his intentions to assert a promising clause, with Miami as the chosen city, signed the day he went to MLS: in exchange for 25 million dollars, he could buy a franchise in any city in the United States.

For this reason, Inter Miami was born, the 25th MLS franchise, which plays at home in the DRV PNK Stadium -built on the foundations of Lockhart Stadium, where the team played its first games in the Markarián era, in September 2010-. And whose great objective today is to win on the desks -Messi in Miami will be a second revolution in soccer in the States- and on the pitch: he has never won a title.

That mission, like Pelé’s in 1975 when he traveled to New York to transform soccer and make it football, now has Messi. After 18 years in European football, the man with the most Ballon d’Ors (7), the most Golden Boots (6), the most titles in the history of football (43), the most goals in the history of Barça (672), the most goals and assists in the history of La Liga (474G and 192A), most goals in Clásicos vs Real Madrid (26), most consecutive seasons scoring in the Champions League (18) and most goals in the top 5 European Leagues (496), travels Soon to Miami. Two hours by car is Disney. Now it will be an amusement park all the time.

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