Lionel Messi will join Inter Miami after his contract with Paris Saint-Germain expires. This is a seismic move for Major League Soccer. While Messi won’t be able to play for the club until the summer transfer window opens on July 5, it will be a monumental move for the Herons, who are bottom of the Eastern Conference table.
Messi will need to take one of his three designated player tags upon joining the club, which will require some squad mechanics as Josef Martinez, Rodolfo Pizarro and Gregore occupy those three spots, but the club will find a way to make things happen through both to implement buy a member of the trio or move on.
That won’t be the only change required to accommodate the legendary Argentine.
The Herons will also need to hire a coach as Phil Neville was fired for his performance and it presents an opportunity for Miami to put themselves in their place. Tata Martino is someone to be linked with joining, but the line of managers wanting to join Messi as a member of the club is longer than you can count. The pressure will be high as whoever leads the team is expected to deliver results from day one and the magnifying glass on the club couldn’t be bigger once Messi takes the pitch.
There are things to like about the line-up as Leonardo Campana and Martinez are great attacking powers and they are backed by Messi but while that helps the attack it doesn’t help that this side have conceded 21 goals in 16 games played Play. It’s not a terrible number, but as the team grows in attack and then has to lose players to make money, they must be careful not to neglect the defensive side of the ball. But while they will be shedding players, others like Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez are targets the team can add in the summer.
How Miami looks now and what the team will look like when the July 5 transfer window opens are two very different things. The anticipation of the club’s performance is already evident when Messi takes the field, as a team who won the title 200-1 just yesterday are currently 30-1 and falling. With additions, deductions and the integration of Messi, things are changing fast in Miami.
What to expect
Even though Messi is now 35, the playmaking streak isn’t slowing down and with his vision being unmatched anywhere in the world, let alone in MLS, Campana and Martinez can take the race ahead of him. Messi, who had just won the World Cup and Ligue 1, recorded 16 goals and 16 assists in the domestic league. The most recent comparison to Messi’s arrival might be Lorenzo Insigne’s move from Napoli to Toronto. Messi had similar top attacking numbers. In the two seasons before his move, Insigne scored 30 league goals and provided 16 assists, while Messi scored 22 goals and provided 40 assists.
Insigne plays a different role and needs to use his legs more, but even in just 21 MLS appearances he has scored eight goals and provided four assists. Messi could really achieve those goals by the end of the season as he has better attacking talent (and because he’s Messi and not Insigne). Miami are a club lacking in defence, which could also change in the summer, but there’s a reason the side are now among the contenders to win the league and that’s because of a certain Lionel Messi.
Who trains Messi anyway?
After leaving Nevile, all indications are that Martino will be coaching the team. The Argentine manager has already won the MLS Cup with Atlanta United and between 2013 and 2016 he was also the coach of Messi for Argentina national team and Barcelona. Despite Martino’s struggles with the Mexico national team, who were eliminated in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup, he is still a highly valued manager who could do wonders for this Miami side.
There are talented players but they can also look ahead to who the team could sign to fill Martino’s preferred formation. A manager who can be flexible in his lineups, a 5-3-2 or 3-4-3 sort of thing, might be best for Miami to get the most out of his attacking trident while ensuring there’s a solid defense flanking them . Defense has been the team’s only constant, with Drake Callender, DeAndre Yedlin, Franco Negri, Serhiy Kryvtsov and Christopher McVey being the only players on the team to have surpassed 1,000 league minutes so far this season. If Martino finds three players starting in the middle around him, that team can quickly climb the leaderboard and rise to become a competitor. It’s important to remember that Inter Miami was a playoff team last season and can get back there with the right leadership.
Listen below and follow In Soccer We Trust: A soccer podcast from CBS Sports where your three favorite former USMNT players share everything you want to know about the beautiful sport in the United States.
How is Messi registered?
Teams are only allowed three designated players and at Miami those spots are currently filled with Martinez, Pizzaro and Gregore, so many more steps will be needed before Messi can officially join. Pizzaro almost left the club once after being loaned to Monterrey but after the Mexican club turned down his option to buy, he returned and played for the team this season. Considering he doesn’t have 600 league minutes and Messi is likely to fill his role, Pizzaro is one of the more expendable players in the squad but it could be difficult to sign him in the summer to open that role.
If that proves too difficult, there’s an option to try and buy out Gregore’s lost salary, but that could lead to funds Miami will need for more signings because while the team is strong in attack and defence, midfield, in the Depth and solid in the friends looks are needed for Messi.
Are Messi and his friends a good idea at all?
It’s no secret that Messi would like his former Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets to support him in making Miami as close to his Barcelona heyday as possible. Jordi Alaba and Luis Suarez are also names that have been mentioned, but considering what it takes for the team to win, a similar situation could develop as if NBA superstar LeBron James were the de facto general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers . While all players have their desires, and in some cases it’s good to acquiesce in them, it’s not always in the team’s best interest.
In the Lakers’ case, some of the trades they made to get players James wants to play with weren’t moves that ultimately helped the team, but elsewhere in the NBA the Milwaukee Bucks have helped Giannis Antetokounmpo by added his brother Thanasis Antetokoumpo to help him settle in. However, there’s a big difference between adding players to improve well-being off the field and adding players to help the team.
If Busquets comes to Miami to help Messi integrate, the move won’t be a problem, but if he’s playing as a lone central defensive midfielder in the Miami Heat in the middle of summer, things might not go so well. MLS has a long history of eating away at aging midfielders who struggle with the pace of MLS despite being technically superior. Just ask Steven Gerrard and Andrea Pirlo and we even saw Miami struggle with that at the forward position, where Gonzalo Higuain needed to get in shape before deciding to play in the league. When attacking aging players, the team needs to be careful as they don’t get much defensive input from the attackers.
If the Herons instead target talented young midfielders, not only will they be eager to support a player they idolize, but it will also be more affordable for younger players to add to a squad. There is still a lot of work to be done, but it all starts with naming a coach. With that in hand, this manager can communicate with Messi and ensure the side perform to the best of their ability when he arrives, leaving the current side, who are at the end of the season in the Eastern Conference, as a distant memory.