Hidden Gems: Inter Miami’s younger players keeping the team alive

When you think of Inter Miami, the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is Lionel Messi, Tata Martino, Sergio Busquets and the whole saga around that.

But what has frequently gone unnoticed during this season is the rise of the squad’s four young local players, Benjamin (Benja) Cremaschi, Noah Allen, David Ruiz, and Ian Fray, who all graduated from the team’s youth academy and have been holding it down while the team gets back to full health.

Due to Franco Negri suffering a season-ending knee injury and DeAndre Yedlin and Kamal Miller competing in the Gold Cup, Miami’s roster is running thin, leading interim head coach Javier Morales with no choice but to start some of his younger talents.

According to Morales, he always tries to put the best players that he has on the field. But sometimes that requires switching players to different positions.

“I spoke with Benja before the [Columbus] game about playing in the back, I know he had never played that position, but I thought he played well,” Morales said. “Players at the top level have to adapt. He had a great game. He also had a good game against Austin and deserved to play. I find a way to put good players on the field and that’s why he played there.”

Against Columbus on Tuesday, the 18-year-old dominated defensively.

Cremaschi, a defender from Key Biscayne, joined the team’s youth academy back in August 2021 and rose through the club’s youth ranks. In just 743 minutes of MLS NEXT Pro action, Cremaschi recorded five goals and one assist.

“We have to believe more as a team that our chances are coming, that the goals are coming as well,” Cremaschi said Monday before the game. “We obviously had our chances and plenty of chances that we didn’t put away. Tomorrow we need to really focus, believe that we can score, and get the win.”

They didn’t win, though they did manage to tie their second game in a row after tying 1-1 against Austin FC last Saturday. According to Fray, despite not adding a win to their record that is in desperate need of one, the team is moving in the right direction.

“We’ve tied two consecutive games,” Fray said. “Maybe [we] should have won both, but we’re turning it around 100 percent.”

Fray, who signed as a homegrown player on Jan. 26, 2021, has had a multitude of setbacks in his professional career.

The Coconut Creek native suffered an ACL injury that caused him to miss his entire professional debut season. And if that wasn’t as heartbreaking enough, he ended up tearing his ACL in the same knee a year later just before the start of the 2022 campaign, causing him to sit out another year.

He made his debut on May 17 against Nashville SC and has since then played in eight games and started in four, compiling one goal against D.C. United, Miami’s lone goal in the loss, four shots, and two shots on target.

Fray credits his teammates and coaches for his progression and road to getting back on the field.

“I’ve been feeling really good,” Fray said. “I feel like I’m getting back to who I was before, and even better. This team helped me so much. The coaches, they gave me a lot of good information. The whole team helped me get to where my performance is now.”

Among Fray and Cremaschi is 19-year-old defender Noah Allen, who joined the team last March and became the second Academy product to appear in an MLS match and the first to start one when he made his MLS debut on Feb. 26 against the Chicago Fire.

Though Allen hasn’t tallied any goals or assists since joining the team, he has performed quite well defensively, amassing six interceptions, one block and eight clearances this season so far.

“I think Noah’s got a tremendous future [and] tremendous potential,” former Assistant Coach Jason Kreis said earlier this season before the first match against Columbus. “I’m really happy that we were able to get him an opportunity with what’s looking like our strongest group right now against a very very strong team in Columbus, because that gives us an opportunity to evaluate him in this league.”

The most recent member of the team’s youngest group of players is 19-year-old Little Havana native David Ruiz who signed with the team on April 28, becoming the sixth Inter Miami CF Academy player to sign a Homegrown player contract.

Ruiz this season has started in seven games and scored one goal and one assist on Josef Martínez’s goal on May 13 in the team’s 2-1 victory against New England Revolution.

“David is a good player who has grown a lot within our system over the last few years and has already shown he can compete at this level,” Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson said back in April after the team signed the midfielder. “We’re very excited to continue to help him along his upward trajectory at the Club. We feel we’re continuing to make great strides with our development pathway and we’re happy to have another young player like David come through it and reach the First Team.”

This story was originally published July 5, 2023 at 2:43 PM.