Cote: Perfect? No. But Messi is a godsend who has exceeded all hopes | Opinion
Complaint is the currency of sports. Think about it. For fans, disappointment is natural, and why not? One team wins the Super Bowl each year, and the 97% of fans cheering for other teams are some degree of not satisfied. Same in all sports. As for Your Friend the Media? We never run out of stuff to grouse about. It’s the lowest-hanging fruit. Some athlete is always injured, not good enough or overpaid. Fire the coach. Make a trade. Do something.
It is harder, and far more rare, to be able to look at a situation and feel simple, unequivocal appreciation. To look at a player as you would da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in the Louvre. To marvel, and feel awe. Sometimes a fan should be not less than honored when this kind of special athlete is gifted to be on the home team. A lifetime of writing sports has left me jaded at times, but then somebody comes along that makes me feel grateful to just be in the orbit of this, an eyewitness to something historic.
“Lionel Messi plays for Inter Miami.”
Almost three years later now and those six words still seem pinch-me unbelievable.
July 21, 2023, Messi entered his first game since signing here — since instantly changing and elevating Major League Soccer and the sport in America — and scored the game-winning free-kick goal in the 94th minute vs. Mexico’s Cruz Azul in a Leagues Cup match. It was storybook stuff. And the pages keep turning.
Sunday night in an MLS game, Messi scored the winning goal and then assisted in a 2-0 victory over the Portland Timbers — the first home win in the club’s new stadium at Miami Freedom Park.
In between, Messi has won back-to-back league MVP awards (a first), won a Golden Boot as goal-scoring leader and led Inter Miami to the 2023 Leagues Cup title, the 2024 Supporters’ Shield for best regular-season record, and the 2025 MLS Cup as league champion. He has drawn record crowds most everywhere he plays.
I found it curious then that Inter Miami’s chanting, drum-banging supporters group “La Familia” was silent Sunday in protest until late in the match, around the 85th minute, reportedly upset that players have not sufficiently acknowledged them in the new stadium.
First, Miami had three disappointing draws and then a blown-lead loss in the new park before Sunday. Not many players are in a mood to effusively applaud their fans during such a down streak. Second, a supporters group blessed to be cheering for Leo Messi shows a bit of gall, frankly, to want more. Remember: The people pray to God, not vice versa.
When “La Familia” did finally come to life Sunday one of its chants, in Spanish, was: “Players, salute your fans, acknowledge your people who ask nothing else of you!” Messi looked on from midfield, understandably not appearing happy with what he was hearing.
Like the fans, I too have been guilty at times of wanting more from Messi. I have found a bit of fault with Inter Miami the past few years for not availing him to local media. He does not speak during the week, before or after games. But I also understand that when Messi agrees to sign with your club in MLS, it is on his terms and conditions. I’ll take a mute Messi in this continuing top form over a talkative-but-diminished version.
So should fans be grateful to cheer for such excellence even as the subject of the adulation does not applaud back as much as they might like.
We have had nobody of Messi’s global stature in the history of South Florida sports. We have had top-tier athletes and champions and future Hall of Famers, but none compare. Only Dan Marino and LeBron James have come close, but even that’s in a relative sense. For an apt comparison, LeBron has 154 million Instagram followers. Hugely impressive. Messi has 506 million.
Around the world, literally, there are untold millions of fans who would call it a dream come true to have Messi playing in their city for their team.
I have not even mentioned that Messi is 38, turning 39 on June 24. Truthfully, three years ago as he arrived, I assumed Messi was coming to Miami and MLS on something of a retirement tour. Assumed he was no longer up to South American and European futbol standards. Assumed we would be seeing, in away, a G.O.A.T. out to pasture.
I have been monumentally surprised. If he was still up to the standards he displayed in his career with Barcelona and Argentina’s national team — winning a record eight Ballon d’Ors as international player of the year — he would dominate in MLS.
And he has.
Is Messi as great as ever? No. Neither is LeBron at 41. Neither was Tom Brady when he last played at 45. But, like Brady and LeBron, Messi at almost 39 is a physical unicorn, defying time, defying logic, defying opponents who assume this freak of nature can’t possibly still be this great.
Messi led Argentina to the World Cup championship in 2022 — the last grand prize that had eluded him — and now shows the top form to again lead his home country as it defends its crown this summer in the tournament hosted mostly by the United States but also Canada and Mexico.
Messi is on Argentina’s initial World Cup roster but neither the country nor the player has said officially that he would compete. It is assumed, a safe bet, but the global champion national team has wanted to see the level of Messi’s form in the buildup — just as Messi has needed to prove to himself he still is capable of taking on the world.
There should be zero doubt.
