Lionel Messi #10 of Inter Miami CF prepares to enter as Serena Williams, LeBron James, and Kim Kardashian look on. In engineering such an elaborate agreement, MLS has shown as much confidence in Messi’s ability to increase exposure for the league as his teammates have in his left foot. Mas has said in interviews that Messi would earn between $50 million and $60 million annually through his two-and-a-half year contract with Inter Miami, but Messi will also reportedly receive a cut of revenue from Adidas, the league’s official apparel provider, and Apple, which just kicked off a 10-year broadcasting deal with MLS this season. It took a league-wide effort to bring Messi to Miami, with MLS and its commercial partners all collaborating to get the deal over the line. Messi announced last month that he would join Inter Miami and its co-owner David Beckham rather than return to his former club of FC Barcelona or accept a lucrative offer to play in the flush Saudi Arabian league that includes superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo. “It is perhaps the most transformational moment in the history of the league,” MLS commissioner Don Garber told me a few hours before kickoff on Friday. “It looks absolutely normal, but it’s not.” What happened next was a foregone conclusion: Messi curled the free kick around and over the wall of Cruz Azul defenders, splashing the ball into the back of the net and securing victory for his new club.Īfterward, Messi’s Inter Miami teammate Kamal Miller marveled “that the whole crowd expected the ball to go right there, and he put it right there.” Inter Miami coach Gerardo Martino called it “a movie that we have seen before.” “It’s common for him, you know,” Martino said. In the match’s waning seconds, and with Inter Miami knotted in a 1-1 deadlock against the Mexican side, Cruz Azul, Messi drew a foul about seven yards outside the penalty area and 25 yards from goal, an auspicious spot for his lethal left foot. That feeling was in the air Friday night, when Messi made his debut for Inter Miami before a jam-packed South Florida crowd that included LeBron James, Serena Williams, and Kim Kardashian. Lionel Messi has always summoned a sense of inevitability, an unshakeable belief shared by his teammates and fans that he will produce in the biggest moments-and probably something spectacular.
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