Dreaming out loud: On David Beckham name-dropping Messi and Ronaldo for Inter Miami | Opinion
David Beckham is dreaming out loud again. Putting his grandest, most high-reaching vision for his Inter Miami CF soccer club out there for all to see.
It’s almost as if he is challenging himself — daring himself — to reach the bar he is setting.
As they await the club’s second season in Major League Soccer (first match is April 18), South Florida fans are again being tempted and teased by Beckham to expect the best, to consider no player out of reach.
Now all he has to do is deliver.
When you whet the appetite for lobster, steak and caviar, what you actually serve will be under fair scrutiny, after all.
So Beckham this week tells ESPN’s Taylor Twellman: “When we announced [a team in] Miami, there was always going to be talk about players we were going to bring in, whether it was Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar. There was always going to be those discussions. I actually don’t think it’s a tough one for players to decide, to be honest, because it’s a great place. Miami is a city that has that pull on players who have been playing in Europe that are big stars.”
There are big stars, and then there are Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar, who are of a galaxy far beyond.
“It’s not a difficult [sales] pitch,” added Beckham. “You say Miami and they’re, like, OK. There were reasons I chose Miami.”
There has always been the assumption that the glamour and sizzle of Miami and the sexy international cache’ of the Beckham brand would be an intoxicating perfume to lure star power.
Beckham “is always going to be a magnet up to all of what is good in world-quality football,” as soccer broadcaster and analyst Ray Hudson said on our podcast as the inaugural season began last March, ill-fated to be turned upside down by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You look at the pulling power of Beckham and the deep pockets of this ownership group and the structure they’re putting together between Fort Lauderdale and Miami,” Hudson went on. “The whole operation is geared toward attracting top-class players.”
I specifically mentioned Messi. Not for now, but perhaps in a few years.
“The likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo is on a different planet,” Hudson said. “’What dreams may come,’ as Shakespeare said. We’re dreaming right now. But we know the structure is one in which, as much as any team in Los Angeles, Inter Miami is going to be able to compete and match any offer that comes to any player. The Beckham factor is an enormous seduction.”
The grandiose plans did not materialize in Year 1.
The rookie team won seven matches, lost 13 and drew three to finish 10th of 14 clubs in the MLS Eastern Conference. Head coach Diego Alonso and sporting director (general manager) Paul McDonald both were sacked after the season.
Inter Miami’s season-opening roster had little star power apart from Rodolfo Pizarro, the attacking midfielder off the Mexican national team, although notable in-season additions included a pair of pedigreed veterans in French midfielder Blaise Matuidi and Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain.
As for Beckham’s out-loud dreams name-dropped this week to ESPN?
▪ Messi, 33, the Argentine forward who may be futbol’s G.O.A.T., sees his contract with Barcelona expire in about three months and is expected to leave — seismic news in soccer. But international reports are that he seems headed to Paris-Saint Germain or, less likely, Manchester City. The thought is Messi has another contract in him on the big stage of Europe before he might he might deign to torque down his epic career with a retirement tour of sorts in MLS and perhaps Miami.
▪ Neymar , the Brazilian forward, is only 29 and there is talk of him renewing his contract with Paris-Saint Germain through 2026. The thought of him here, or in MLS, seems a dream long deferred.
▪ Ronaldo, the Portuguese forward now with Juventus, might be closest on Beckham’s wish list if only because Ronaldo is now 36. He is linked to a return this summer to Real Madrid, depending on what Juventus wants more: Ronaldo, or the transfer fee in the range of $40 million U.S. he would command.
Beckham’s Inter Miami as a welcoming future home for aging megastars should have a deja vu feel to longtime soccer fans in South Florida, and to Ray Hudson, who was an eyewitness.
Hudson was a young pup of a mdfielder newly over from England circa 1976-80 when the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the then-successful NASL imported past-prime international stars such as Gerd Muller, Georgie Best, Teofilo Cubillas and Gordon Banks.
Those Strikers won on the field and helped create and grow this as a soccer market, priming the pump for Beckham 40 years down the road. Those Strikers full of fading stars but stars nonetheless filled the very Lockhart Stadium where now sits Inter Miami’s for-now Fort Lauderdale home pitch.
The lesson of that halcyon Strikers era applies today for any who wonder: Is it wise and good business for Inter Miami to become a retirement home of sorts for legends winding down their careers?
Yes.
If we are talking about Messi and Ronaldo?
Oh, yes, please.
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 12:00 PM.
