By Paul Tenorio, Felipe Cardenas and Pablo Maurer
Major League Soccer and Inter Miami are finalizing details on the potential signing of Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi.
Several sources familiar with the negotiations said there are growing hopes that Inter Miami could strike a deal to bring the world champions to MLS as early as this summer. These sources also warned that confidence in a deal with Messi fluctuates from week to week and even day to day. All sources in this story were granted anonymity as they were not authorized to speak about ongoing negotiations.
A source briefed on the high-level discussions in the league said MLS executives had been told that Messi’s decision rested with Inter Miami or Barcelona and that a move to a club from Saudi Arabia was “not under consideration”. become. The same source mentioned a possible date for Messi’s MLS debut should he sign: Inter Miami’s League Cup match against Mexican club Cruz Azul on July 21, currently set to take place at Inter Miami’s DRV PNK Stadium.
Reports of Messi’s imminent decision have come from Europe, South America and Asia and have been numerous this week, but in recent days the momentum appears to have shifted towards Inter Miami.
“The league has gotten very creative with all of this,” an MLS stakeholder said Tuesday morning of a potential deal to bring Messi to MLS. “Everything is on the table.”
MLS’ offer to Messi includes contributions from the league’s two biggest commercial partners.
Several sources involved or aware of the high-level discussions about the league said earlier this week that MLS and Apple have discussed offering Messi a share of the revenue generated by new subscribers to the MLS Season Pass, the league’s streaming package Apple TV+. Both sides see Messi’s potential Major League Soccer involvement as a boon; Apple and MLS signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal earlier this spring. On Tuesday, Apple announced that a four-part documentary covering Messi’s five World Cup appearances will be streamed on Apple TV+.
Adidas, one of the MLS’s biggest corporate sponsors, has prepared its own potential deal to lure Messi to the United States, multiple sources informed of those plans told The Athletic on Tuesday. According to these sources, Messi will be offered a profit-sharing agreement with the sportswear giant, which will see the player receive a cut in profit increases from Adidas stemming from his involvement in MLS.
Adidas has worked with MLS since the league was founded in 1996. The two sides renewed their partnership earlier this year, signing a six-year extension worth $830 million through 2030. The German manufacturer supplies jerseys to all 29 MLS teams and also designs the league’s official match ball and official League shoe sponsor.
Messi himself has a long-standing relationship with Adidas that began in 2006. In 2017, he signed a lifetime shoe sponsorship deal with the company.
Sources across the league briefed on the talks expressed mixed confidence on whether Inter Miami and MLS could win the race to sign Messi. One source ranked it as 50-50. Another said that even Inter Miami’s team managers are divided on whether they believe it will happen. The negotiations will be led by Inter Miami owners Jorge and Jose Mas, these sources said.
Messages left for Inter Miami spokesmen and Jorge and Jose Mas have not been returned at the time of publication.
Messi’s deal would likely include an option to acquire a stake in an MLS team after his time as a player in MLS ends, multiple sources familiar with the talks have said. That would at least be similar to David Beckham’s deal with the LA Galaxy, which gave him the option to buy an MLS expansion team for $25 million. That option eventually became Inter Miami.
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Miami had hoped to sign Messi almost since its inception. When the expansion team was officially announced in 2018, Messi posted a video on social media in which he congratulated Beckham and said: “Who knows, maybe you can call me in a few years.” The club have been working on tying up ties to Messi and even has ties to his longtime club Barcelona. Miami’s chief business officer is Xavier Asensi, Barcelona’s former chief commercial officer and a member of the Spanish club’s board. In April, Beckham, who was retiring from Paris Saint-Germain, visited the club’s training ground and had his picture taken with Messi, fueling rumors of a possible move for the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner to the MLS.
Should Messi come to Miami, a familiar face could greet him. Multiple sources involved or aware of Miami’s coaching search have confirmed to The Athletic that preliminary talks have taken place between Inter Miami and Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who is currently unemployed after leaving his post with the Mexico national team in December.
Miami is currently managed by caretaker manager Javier Morales. The club’s previous manager, Phil Neville, was sacked last week.
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Martino, 60, has coached Messi and Argentina in back-to-back Copa America finals, including the 2016 edition, which was held in the United States. From 2013 to 2014, Martino Messi was also in charge at Barcelona.
Martino won an MLS Cup as Atlanta United manager in 2018. Despite disagreements with Atlanta’s sporting department over player signings, Martino guided the two-year-old club to the league title in 2018, their second and final season in MLS. His influence on player recruitment was paramount to Atlanta United’s immediate success.
A source close to Martino, who asked not to be identified due to the nature of their relationship, told The Athletic that Messi and Martino got along well working together. They were neither near nor far, the source said. Seven years later, both players and managers have matured in different ways. Messi, who was once considered a failure with his national team, is now world champion. Martino has enjoyed a turbulent four-year season with Mexico and is keen to return to MLS. Inter Miami declined to comment on potential coach candidates.
“MLS is my weakness,” Martino told The Athletic in April. “I was part of an extraordinary project with Atlanta United that had clear direction, lots of communication and similar goals that were set and implemented very quickly. After training in MLS I was drawn to it. I like the league. The possibility of a return to MLS is always there.”
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MLS commissioner Don Garber told The Athletic in March that it would likely take a creative deal – like the one Beckham had when he joined LA Galaxy in 2007 – for the league to sign Messi.
“You are perhaps dealing with the most extraordinary player in the history of football,” Garber said of Messi. “So if there are rumors that he is linked with Miami, that’s great. And if it could happen it would be great for MLS, it would be great for Messi and his family and like everything with us, we try to take advantage of every opportunity. I can’t give any more details because we don’t have them.”
Messi signed a two-year deal with PSG last season after previously spending 17 years at Barcelona. The French side won their 11th Ligue 1 title this season, with Messi recording 16 goals and 16 assists in 32 league games. He scored four goals in seven games in the Champions League. PSG reached the last 16 of the Champions League in 2022/23 before losing to Bayern Munich.
Last month he was suspended by PSG for two weeks for making an unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia. Saudi club Al-Hilal are also in the running for Messi’s signing after reportedly offering a deal worth over $400m a year.
Founded in 2018, Inter Miami is co-owned by Beckham. Last season it was 14-6-14 and ranked sixth in the Eastern Conference, this year it’s 5-0-11. Even before Inter Miami kicked a ball, they were expected to eventually field a star team, an MLS version of Galácticos. This was largely due to comments Mas made publicly.
“David and I have worked really hard, our goal is to bring the best players here and Leo Messi is a player of a generation, arguably the best player of all time,” Mas told the Miami Herald in 2021. “I’m optimistic that Messi will do that.” I will play in the Inter Miami shirt because I think it will complete the legacy of the greatest player of our generation and live up to the ambitions of the Inter Miami owners, a world-class to build a team.”
The reality was very different. Yes, Miami has fielded world champion Blaise Matuidi and former Argentina and Real Madrid forward Gonzalo Higuaín. But players like Cristiano Ronaldo, James Rodríguez, Radamel Falcao, Antoine Griezmann, Marco Verratti, Edinson Cavani, Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets and others were rumors or deals that fell far short of reality. Inter Miami needs a big star or South Florida fans won’t show up on game day.
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“This town wants to be turned on, you know what I’m saying?” Neville said in February. “I think this club is far from the working class. It has to have a bit of glitz and glam. It must aim at the moon and not the stars. It has to do with where we are. People in Miami want to get excited. They want South Beach.”
Last but not least, Neville has seen if Messi actually makes it to MLS. However, he had an opinion on the impact his signing would have on the league.
“I think it’s bigger than Inter Miami,” Neville said. “It’s big for MLS. I think that would probably be the biggest signing of all time. I think if we have the opportunity to sign Messi and if he actually comes to this football club – and I don’t think we can hide from the fact that we’re probably in the stadium, probably hunting, then that’s what it’s like to be prepared.”
(Photo: Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)