Simply earlier than 9 p.m. on Sunday, the best soccer participant of his period, and possibly the best of all time, walked throughout a makeshift stage in his new house stadium. He hugged the house owners of his new crew, together with the previous star David Beckham. As he held his new jersey — a pink No. 10 — Lionel Messi grinned and regarded up on the crowd and the fireworks.
If it has felt like a dream that Messi, who received the World Cup in December as Argentina’s captain and who has claimed seven Ballons d’Or because the world’s greatest participant, selected Inter Miami of M.L.S. as his crew for the twilight of his profession, his unveiling occasion was proof that, sure, this has really occurred.
“Earlier than something, I need to give because of Miami for this reception and the kindness since I arrived to the town,” Messi stated in Spanish in his first public feedback since his monumental deal, which runs via the 2025 M.L.S. season, was introduced on Saturday. “To be trustworthy, I’m very emotional and really blissful to be right here in Miami and to be with you.”
For 2 minutes, Messi, 36, spoke on to the Inter Miami followers who chanted his surname all through the night time at DRV PNK Stadium, about 30 miles north of downtown Miami. Messi’s introduction was known as La PresentaSíon, the presentation in Spanish, however with “Sí” (“Sure”) emphasised. And in typical South Florida vogue, it befell within the rain.
In selecting Miami, the place he already owns property, Messi turned down an opportunity to play in Saudi Arabia, the place a crew had provided him considerably more cash. He additionally declined the potential for returning to Barcelona, the place he signed at 13, received each main trophy and needed to stay earlier than transferring to Paris-St. Germain in 2021.
Lengthy earlier than Messi’s time in France got here to an unceremonious finish this summer season, the house owners of Inter Miami had dreamed of bringing him to South Florida. The occasion on Sunday, and the weeks main as much as it, have proven how a lot of a jolt Messi has already offered to the franchise, the area and soccer in america.
“There’ll at all times be a earlier than and after Lionel Messi,” stated Jorge Mas, the Cuban American billionaire and managing proprietor of Inter Miami, which performed its inaugural season in 2020.
“We’re recipients of the legacy of the best participant on this planet that began at Newell’s Previous Boys, went to Barcelona, ended at P.S.G.,” Mas continued, itemizing Messi’s earlier groups, together with his youth crew in Argentina. “However right this moment it sits within the palms of Inter Miami and its followers. That is our second. Our second to vary the soccer panorama on this nation.”
The rain subsided by the point Messi spoke, however a torrential downpour hindered the early festivities and flooded components of this interim stadium. (Inter Miami hopes to maneuver to a proposed new stadium close to Miami Worldwide Airport in 2025.) On Sunday, the 19,000-seat stadium definitely didn’t have the scale or power of Camp Nou in Barcelona or Parc des Princes in Paris, however most followers donned crew or Messi gear. One shirtless fan waved an enormous flag that includes Messi in an Argentina jersey. Argentina jerseys had been the second hottest clothes selection, with a number of followers sporting Messi’s Barcelona shirt.
The celebration, broadcast globally in English and Spanish on Apple TV, M.L.S.’s first-year streaming associate, with a number of glitches, purposefully coincided with halftime of the Concacaf Gold Cup last, which Mexico received by 1-0 over Panama.
Earlier than Messi addressed the gang, Mas and Beckham spoke. Beckham, an Englishman who famously signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy of M.L.S. in 2007, learn his ready feedback from his cellphone, sprinkling in some Spanish. Mas used each languages for the whole lot of his handle. Miami, in any case, is the unofficial capital of Latin America, and Florida has the most important Argentine group in United States.
“I do know that the individuals of South Florida will take you all into their hearts,” Beckham stated. “We’re constructing a particular membership right here at Inter Miami, a membership that represents this particular place and its individuals.”
Earlier than Messi appeared, Beckham launched the crew’s second marquee signing of the summer season, Sergio Busquets, Messi’s former teammate at Barcelona. Busquets spoke, too, however briefly. The night time, imperfect and all, belonged to Messi.
Not identified for being loquacious, Messi was concise on Sunday. Carrying a white Inter Miami T-shirt and denims, Messi thanked the crew’s possession group for making him and his household really feel welcome. He stated he hoped followers would maintain watching and rising with the crew.
“I’ve plenty of want to start out coaching and to compete,” stated Messi, who joins a crew in final place within the M.L.S.’s Jap Convention. “I got here with a want to at all times compete and need to win.”
Messi additionally thanked his teammates, a number of of whom had been on the sector.
“I’m very blissful to have chosen to return to this metropolis with my household and to have chosen this undertaking,” he stated. “I don’t have a doubt that we’ll get pleasure from it and we’ll have time and exquisite issues will occur.”
After Messi handed over the microphone, a video performed on the large display that includes many celebrities, such because the retired Argentine basketball star Manu Ginóbili and the Miami residents Gloria and Emilio Estefan, welcoming Messi to city and wishing him luck. Then the households of Messi and the house owners joined them onstage for photographs. Musical acts adopted.
Afterward, Messi signed autographs for followers within the stands. Tuesday is his first official coaching session together with his teammates, and Friday will likely be his first sport. That is his new house.