What Lionel Messi’s sudden, stunning move from Barcelona to Paris means for Inter Miami | Opinion
He wore a dark blue suit, fit for a wake. He paused when he needed to, which was often, as the tears turned to sobs and the hanky came back out.
The somber gathering of disbelieving fans grew outside Camp Nou Stadium. They wore his jersey and held photos. The fans were crying, too.
Sports has never seen anything quite like this. The greatest soccer player there ever was, leaving the only club he has ever known — and leaving against his will. He didn’t want to go. His club didn’t want that, either. Surely his league and futbol federation did not.
And yet there he goes.
“We wanted to stay here,” he made it plain at his Sunday farewell. “But today I have to say goodbye to all of this.”
Never in the history of mankind has the pronunciation of a man’s surname better described the situation that drove him out.
Messi.
Messy. Sad. Enraging. Astounding. Avoidable. All apply to this sudden and strange end of an era in international soccer.
Messi spent 21 years with Barcelona, since age 13 in its youth program. He signed his first professional contract on a restaurant napkin. Now — all a memory.
And now fans in South Florida rightly wonder: What does all of this mean to us? To the hope and dream that Lionel Messi might, after his run in Europe has ended, finish his career with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer?
Inter Miami, after a tough first year and a half in MLS, seems finally to have found its footing and has victories and two draws in its past four matches. Messi someday — that’s the fantasy that had begun to seem like more than a pipe dream.
Messi and Barcelona reportedly had agreed to a new contract that would have him play five more seasons with FC Barcelona in La Liga and then a swansong two seasons with Inter Miami before returning to Barca in a nonplaying role.
It made so much sense. Messi has said, “I would like to play in the United States and experience life and the league there.” This spring he bought a $7.3 million condo in Miami Beach. He recently spent a brief holiday here after leading Argentina to the Copa America championship, dining at a local Italian restaurant and being mobbed by adoring fans as he left.
Inter Miami majority owner Jorge Mas and club president both have said they were hopeful of the Messi eventuality.
Then the Barcelona-Messi deal fell apart because La Liga and the Spanish federation said it did not meet financial fair-play rules. Even though Messi had agreed to take a 50 percent pay cut, an in-debt, mismanaged Barcelona could not make the contract work.
“It did not end the way it should. It is not the fairy tale end of a fairy tale career,” as Inter Miami announcer and longtime South Florida soccer icon Ray Hudson told us Monday. “Because of the club’s finances being handled with the balance of a [expletive] giraffe on roller skates.”
As there arose in Spain the lunatic notion that Messi could stay with Barca if he agreed to play for free, the King of Catalan was not a free agent long and now reportedly will head to French power Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year contract with an option for a third.
“It is befitting him,” said Hudson of PSG’s stature and Messi.
Backed by Qatari riches, the Paris club is coached by an Argentine and features what Hudson calls “staggering talent” including Messi’s former Barca teammate, Neymar.
It can’t be known if Messi, 34, will be ready to end his European career after two or three years in Paris, but whenever he chooses to do so, Inter Miami will be poised as a likely destination. It can only help that Beckham has a business relationship with the Qatar group that owns PSG.
Qatar Airways and Inter Miami were negotiating a $234 million sponsorship deal in late 2019 into ‘20 before it fell through. The Daily Mail in London has reported Beckham will be paid almost $14 million U.S. to be the media-friendly face of Qatar’s hosting the 2022 World Cup.
In other words, Messi leaving Barcelona for PSG doesn’t appear to lessen the chance Miami might be where he ends his epic playing career. You could even argue (optimistically) that the move increases the chances, and moves up the timetable.
“The connection’s there,” as Hudson puts it.
Whether Messi might come to Miami at age 37 or 39, however past his prime, the six-time “Ballon d’Or” winner as world player of the year will still be Messi, filling stadiums across MLS.
“There’s no one bigger, and he’ll still have that aura,” says Hudson. “That snap of electrical pace might be dimmed, but the genius of him will still be there. I don’t know there’s ever been a player so poetic.”
As the unthinkable happens and he swaps his Barcelona uniform for the colors of Paris Saint-Germain, fans in Miami still dream to imagine Lionel Messi in another team’s jersey.
