On Tuesday, Argentine superstar Lionel Messi touched down in Florida, where he will complete the last steps of his transfer to the Major League Soccer club Inter Miami in the United States.
Argentine television footage showed Lionel Messi and members of his family alighting from a private plane at a modest executive airport in close proximity to the stadium where Inter Miami plays in Fort Lauderdale.
After winning the World Cup, the player is likely to sign a contract that lasts for two and a half years and is rumored to be worth $60 million each year before being introduced to the fans during an event held in a stadium on Sunday.
“We couldn’t be happier with the choice that we made. In an interview with the Argentine television show Llave a la eternidad, which was shown on Tuesday, Lionel Messi stated that he is “prepared and eager to face the new challenge, the new change.”
“My mentality and my head are not going to change,” he said, “and I am going to try, wherever I have to be, to give my best for myself and my new club and continue to perform at the highest level.” “My mentality and my head are not going to change.”
Messi is the most famous player to ever go to Major League Soccer (MLS), and he is the best player to come to the United States since Pele signed with the New York Cosmos in 1975. Pele was the finest player to come to the United States from Brazil.
The Major League Soccer (MLS) organization has high hopes that Lionel Messi will substantially raise the prominence of the league and increase the number of subscribers to their streaming broadcast arrangement with Apple TV. The prices of tickets for games in which Lionel Messi is anticipated to participate have already skyrocketed.
Early in the morning, supporters started to congregate at the DRV PNK stadium of the team in anticipation of his anticipated arrival.
Julio Iglesias, 42, is one of the admirers, and he claimed that he started the ‘Messias 305’ fan organization after he found out that the Argentine singer was going to be in Miami. He previously didn’t watch Major League Soccer games, but he claims that going forward, he won’t miss any Miami matches.
“For us, Messi coming means everything, wherever he goes there is always incredible happiness,” he remarked while standing in front of a banner that read “We are waiting for you, Messias.”
– World Cup fever – The arrival of Messi will also add to the energy around the sport in advance of the 2026 World Cup, which will be held by the United States of America, together with Canada and Mexico.
It is anticipated that his former teammate from Barcelona, the Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets, will follow him to the club, and the position of head coach was recently filled by Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who formerly coached Argentina and Barcelona.
The owner of Miami, Jorge Mas, has said that the South Florida club may make “three to five” new players before the end of the current transfer window. Those additions may include Messi and Busquets.
Another player who formerly played for Barcelona, the Spanish fullback Jordi Alba, has been extensively associated with a move to the squad, which is co-owned by David Beckham, who is best known for his time spent playing for Manchester United and England.
It is anticipated that Messi will make his first appearance for his new team in the Leagues Cup match against the Mexican club Cruz Azul on July 21.
With only five wins from a total of 21 games, Miami is currently placed last in the Eastern Conference of the Major League Soccer (MLS) and is 28th out of the 29 teams in the league overall.
The club, however, has advanced to the semi-finals of the US Open Cup, where they will face the team that is now leading their league, FC Cincinnati.
The seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or has been playing for Paris Saint-Germain for the past two seasons after coming there in 2021 from Barcelona, where he had spent the majority of his career up until that point.
During his career at Barcelona, Lionel Messi won 10 titles in the Spanish league, seven titles in the Copa del Rey (also known as the Spanish Cup), and four winners medals in the Champions League.
He scored twice for Argentina in the World Cup final, which they won on penalties in Doha in December after extra time finished with the score 3-3, and he was the one who hoisted the trophy as the winning captain.
In addition, Messi won the Copa America in 2001 and the Olympic gold medal for Argentina in 2008. Messi earned the Olympic gold medal in 2008.