Messi, Messi and Messi again and again: The soccer superstar turned Inter Miami upside down in just one month – and sparked an unprecedented soccer hype in the USA.
It was a goal that only he can actually score: After an initially unthreatening build-up, Lionel Messi grabs the ball in the center circle, takes about ten small tripping steps forward with it, briefly fixes on the goalkeeper and shoots from over 30 meters per touch down with millimeter precision in the lower right corner.
Even if goalkeeper Andre Blake – with 69 caps for Jamaica by the way anything but a bad guy in his field – stretches to the maximum length, he has no chance. The goal that made Inter Miami 2-0 against Philadelphia Union (final score: 4-1) can hardly be prevented – just like Messi’s success in the USA.
The shortest way to the Champions League
But in the Leagues Cup, a new cup competition involving teams from the MLS and the Mexican league, Messi and his new team (partly owned by David Beckham, by the way) are delighting fans. Inter Miami has won all six games so far and thus reached the final on Sunday (3 a.m. German time) against Nashville.
Along the way, the world-famous player, nicknamed “La Pulga” (“The Flea”), scored at least once in every game, even scoring nine goals in total. Even more important than his goals: With reaching the final, Messi’s team qualified for the Concacaf Champions Cup, the equivalent of the Champions League in Europe, for the first time in the club’s history.
And from the point of view of the Argentine superstar, whose aspirations throughout his career have always been titles, titles and more titles, that was also sorely needed. Because: With Miami, Messi had actually chosen a veritable loser team.
With just five wins from 22 games, Inter ranks bottom in the Eastern Conference and is by far the worst team in MLS. But that was before Messi. The Argentinian world champion enchanted Miami and the entire country – and ensured shirt sales on a scale never seen before in the league.
Pfannenstiel: “A football hype has been triggered in the USA”
“This has triggered a real football hype in the USA. The league and Miami have worked for years to convince Messi of this change – not just in the last six months,” explains Lutz Pfannenstiel t-online.
The 50-year-old is the manager of St. Louis City SC, the big surprise team that shook up the league in its inaugural season and led the Western Conference.
Pfannenstiel has been hearing the hype surrounding Messi for weeks and is impressed: “That a figurehead like David Beckham brings him over is really great cinema, as is the performance with the concert and the spectacle around it.”
This spectacle even impressed a pop star who has been in the global spotlight like few others for decades: David Beckham’s wife Victoria. “During the presentation, my wife said, ‘This is amazing what a man can do,'” David Beckham told the BBC, adding with a grin, “And she didn’t mean me.”
2023-08-17 22:14:20
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