“Money alone does not guarantee MLS championships”: Inside Inter Miami and the truth about Lionel Messi’s great challenge

2.5 billion dollars!

It is not the first time that this team, Inter Miami, seeks to have an Argentinian and achieve important things, three years ago, they struck a blow by hiring one of the ‘9’ who arrived in September 2020. Gonzalo Higuain signed in exchange of 7.5 million euros, something that also made him the highest paid player in the North American league. In total, Higuaín played 70 games and scored 29 goals with the Inter Miami jersey, although despite his efforts he was never able to celebrate a title.

Inter Miami inside

Inter Miami has been institutional for five years. He is, let’s say, almost a rookie. It all started on January 29, 2018, when MLS announced that Miami would receive the league’s 25th franchise, however, no one would imagine that said city would be in the eyes of the world after the possible arrival of Lionel Messi to said team. The Argentine star after two seasons in Paris Saint-Germain.

And it is that, when the Englishman David Beckham received the option to have a franchise in any market in the United States – except New York – for the fixed amount of 25 million dollars by the time he decides to retire. However, who would have imagined that this clause would be crucial for the arrival of Lionel Messi in Miami.

Niko Moreno, a journalist who lives in the United States and works at Pulso Sports, answers some questions about Inter Miami, Lionel Messi’s possible new team: Does the club have a lot of money? “Absolutely. With the Cuban-American brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, who are speculated to have a fortune of more than a billion dollars, according to Forbes, and David Beckham, who have more or less 500 million, the money is there”.

Why hasn’t he been champion in the MLS? “The answer is simple -explains Moreno-, only money does not guarantee championships in MLS. Miami brought in “big names” as promised before its opening game, spending $12 million to acquire Rodolfo Pizarro, who was one of the most prominent players at the time, but never quite made the cut. More stars arrived during the 2020 season, with goalscorer Gonzalo Higuaín and former French World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi arriving in the fall, both after seasons with Juventus. Matuidi was a failure on the pitch and Higuain was seen for a long time in the same light. The Matuidi signing ended worse because it resulted in an MLS investigation into the real cost of those signings. Matuidi was added to the roster without using a designated playing spot, but it turned out Miami had been paying him far more money than reported. Matuidi was one of five players that MLS did not report.

During its years as a professional club, Inter Miami has had several Argentine soccer players who have passed through its ranks throughout its short history such as: Nicolás Figal, Leandro González Pirez, Matías Pellegrini. Julian Carranza and Gonzalo Higuain.

However, Inter Miami’s relationship with the country of Argentina is not only in the football field, but in its stands the link is even greater. The official bar of the club is called “Vice City”, which is made up mostly of Argentine citizens, who sing as if it were a stadium in their country and putting a different color on the stands of the DRV PNK Stadium.

Also, the present of Inter Miami in sports is complicated, after the dismissal of Phil Neville, who took over the position was the Argentine Javier Morales, a 43-year-old coach – who is acting interim and who has not started on the right foot, since that fell at home against Wayne Rooney’s DC United. This has led to the fact that he has already accumulated five consecutive defeats and that he is last in Zone A of the league, with 15 points. If the transfer is closed, Lionel Messi will have the challenge of raising the Inter Miami franchise to the top like this like when David Beckham founded it.

Messi and a present at club level that leaves much to be desired

In the Parisian cast, Lionel Messi played 74 games with the French club called PSG, after signing in the summer of 2021 from FC Barcelona,

Finally, in his 74 games, Lionel Messi scored 32 goals and provided 35 assists, but he will leave PSG without having been able to give the Parisian club its great goal at the European club level: The UEFA Champions League.

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