Jorge Mas revealed that there was a lot of pressure and concern leading up to the Argentine’s arrival.
Jorge Más spoke about Lionel Messi
Almost three months after his transfer to Inter Miami, the arrival of Lionel Messi It was a success on both a sporting and business level. The Argentine star managed to catapult the team from the bottom of the table and quickly win their first title (in the League Cup) and qualification for the Concacaf Champions League.
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A signing that was able to be carried out thanks to the careful work of the businessman Jorge Mas And David Beckham. A job that took him more than four years to complete, but it ultimately paid off. In an interview with Athlete’s Club, the manager revealed that the plan to acquire the Argentine began back in 2019.
“I always aspired to sign Messi because everyone told me it would be impossible. Since 2019 I decided to organize a meeting in Barcelona to join his father Jorge. I picked up David (Beckham) in London, we secretly flew to Barcelona and met Jorge for three hours. I sold him the concept of Miami, the dream. I see the history of soccer in America with three important dates: Pelé in the cosmos in 1972, Beckham’s arrival in Los Angeles and Messi’s arrival in Miami. I told him, ‘Your son will have the opportunity to leave a new legacy’ because he will be able to change a sport in a country and that is very rare for a top athlete like Leo.”
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From that moment on, Jorge Mas began working to convince him, always looking for a more familiar project like sport to lure him. “It took four and a half years to convince him because in the end the decision was up to him and his family. “I never lost faith, I was convinced because I had the vision that Lionel Messi would arrive here in Miami.”
However, “The intensity of negotiations and discussions started very strongly last summer. When he was entering the last year of his contract with PSG, I had the opportunity to talk to him because the Argentine team trained at Inter Miami’s facilities, hosted their World Cup there and I spent a lot of time with Leo talking about that, about Miami , about his family, about his future. I saw that there was a great possibility of being able to conclude something so that Lionel would go to Maimi in 2023, after the World Cup.”
Messi joined Inter Miami alongside Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets (Reuters)
The opportunity to have the man from Rosario on his team went from a dream to a reality, but to do so he had to compete with attractive offers from Europe and Arabia. “Of course, being the best player in the world, there was a lot of competition. Not only with the extension requested by PSG, the possible return to Barcelona and of course the offers from the Saudi teams to be able to go there. To be honest, they were very intense months. I had several meetings between Rosario, Barcelona, Paris, Miami, Doha (…) There were contracts with extremely important figures, there was competition and concerns, but I was always convinced. “For us, the focus was on the family, the family aspect” story.
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Although the main desire was the arrival of Messi, with all that that meant at a footballing and institutional level, Jorge Mas was aware that I had to modify the squad to make it more competitive: “It was important to surround it with players, who can have an extraordinary influence not only in football but also in the culture that we are trying to establish at Inter Miami.” We signed Sergio Busquet, an extraordinary person, just like Jordi Alba. “They were long conversations that lasted many months.”
“Miami has young people with a lot of potential that you can see them and learn from them so that this club can remain at a very high level of football. Busi, Alba, Leo, the Tata newcomer who had experience with them, I think that combination was reflected in the results. Lion He’s a competitive beast, he wants to win, but only Lionel Messi at Inter Miami? I think that in the first transfer window we managed to put together a team that will set standards in North America. “We have qualified for the Concacaf Champions League and want to take part in the Club World Cup,” explained the American businessman.
Finally, he assured that they are working to ensure that the Argentine star can say goodbye to Barcelona as he deserves: “His departure was not pleasant. He couldn’t say goodbye to his club and the circumstances weren’t what he would have liked. I gave him the promise that he will do everything in the coming years so that he has the opportunity and can say goodbye to his fans in Barcelona. We can organize a game or something with Inter Miami. It will be organized, but yes.”
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Source: javiko.edu.vn
2023-10-03 11:45:48
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