Jordi Alba during a league game with Barcelona last May. AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)
There is no truce in the great summer of signings in Miami. Inter are set to sign their third bombshell deal this Tuesday with left-back Jordi Alba joining his former Barcelona team-mates Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets. The confirmation was offered after a team training session and during talks with reporters by the club’s owner, Cuban-American businessman Jorge Mas, who also confirmed that Messi’s debut will be against Mexico’s Cruz Azul side on Friday The Club Competition: North American League’s Cup. Mas also said that the Argentine star will not play the entire game.
Alba, 34, left Barcelona on his own initiative a month ago and has been a free transfer player ever since. As with Messi, there has been speculation that his destiny lies in Saudi Arabia but after a decade at the Catalan team he has finally decided to move to Miami where he will play with two old friends from now on. The three met in Barcelona last April for a meeting that raised suspicions that their fates have been revealed to be linked.
Both Messi and Busquets are included in the category of “designated players” under the rules of the American League (MLS), who are exempt from the salary cap that the competition imposes on the rest of the athletes. There can only be three per team and the third in the case of Inter is Joseph Pérez. Alba joins the organization in a lower salary category, which provides for a maximum of two million dollars per season.
Messi’s historic contract for MLS has a two-and-a-half-year term and includes a salary of between $50 million and $60 million per season; less than he would have expected at the age of 36 if he had accepted a new life in Saudi Arabia. The deal includes a stake in the team upon their exit, an undisclosed share of global broadcast rights owned by Apple TV, and the sale of Adidas sports gear.
Beckham and the “Tata” Martino
The announcement of Alba, who has won six leagues and one Champions League with Barça, has been delayed due to family logistics concerns for the Spain winger, who is expecting his third child, according to Inter sources. The confirmation finally came after Messi and Busquets’ second training session with the side, the first that saw the media access to cover the stars training with their new companions on a sweltering morning in Fort Lauderdale, home of Inter Stadium to watch.
Mas, accompanied by sporting director and co-owner David Beckham, also awaited the impending arrival of Paraguayan Diego Gómez (from Libertad Asunción), as well as Argentines Facundo Farías (Colón) and Brian Aguirre (Newell’s). These three signings are the wishes of new coach Gerardo Tata Martino, another key arrival in the most revolutionary season in the club’s history, founded in 2018. These are young players who, as Mas explained in a recent interview with EL PAÍS, will serve to strengthen the team by supporting the trio of former Barcelona players, all of whom are at the end of their careers.
The city is also hailing the addition of a fourth big star, another ex-Barça player: Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez. Concerning this possibility, Mas reminded that Suárez is signed to Brazilian team Gremio de Portoalegre and that his signing would only be possible if he manages to voluntarily end his relationship with his current employer.
Inter are bottom of the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS) and are in the midst of a season of disappointing results, but one where they could still reach the playoffs.
MLS is now on its summer break and competition is set to resume at the end of August. It will then be interesting to see how Inter, a team that emerges greatly strengthened, is positioned in the ecosystem. Asked if he thought so much player movement would lead to a competitive imbalance in the league, Nelson Rodríguez, the general manager, told EL PAÍS on Sunday that “each of the 29 teams is looking for the way that it is self-defined.” . And he cited the example of the Philadelphia Union, which defends a model based on something similar to the Quarry lost to the Los Angeles team.
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