Of course there was the Messi moment that evening – but it was so perfect, so kitschy that you could have mistaken it for a staging. Even David Beckham, who had seen a lot in his life, stood on the sidelines with tears in his eyes and shook his head; later he said: “I’m at a loss for words. Things like that only happen in dreams, but that’s the way it had to be. What a moment for this league, what a moment for this country!” Messi himself called the moment “pure joy” on Friday night’s debut for US club Inter Miami.
Messi had been fouled in stoppage time in the cup game against Mexican club Cruz Azul – or, to paraphrase Goethe: half pulled, half sank. It doesn’t matter, the referee awarded a free kick in Messi’s position. 22 meters from the goal, half-left position. Messi set the ball straight, deliberately put his collar in the anti-Cristiano Ronaldo position (folded, not set up) – and then he twirled the ball into the top left corner, untenable. You’ve seen it so many times, and yet it’s always unique. In the end it was 2-1 for Inter Miami because of the Messi moment. “When I saw the ball sail into the goal, I was just happy,” he said afterwards: “I hope there will be many more of these moments.”
The marketing of the soccer saint begins: immediately
If you had to describe what happened in Florida on Friday night as a joke – it would go like this: Kim Kardashian, Serena Williams and Posh Spice meet in a tiny football stadium to watch the game of the bottom of the Mexican league against the club with the worst record in the US league – with the sporting completely irrelevant League’s Cup, in which all teams from both leagues take part. Almost as an interlude until the women’s World Cup is over – oh yes: at the same time as Messi’s debut, the US team won their opening game at the World Cup tournament in Australia and New Zealand 3-0 against Vietnam.
A break trophy for Messi’s debut. crazy, right? Okay, after all, a prize money of 40 million dollars is announced.
Of course, self-marketing work of art Kardashian, tennis star Williams, lifestyle legend Beckham and other celebrities like LeBron James or Marc Anthony were not in the stadium because of the cup game, but because: Messi. Beckham’s husband David, as co-owner of Inter Miami, engineered this deal with Messi, which is said to be more important than his own in 2007 from Real Madrid to Los Angeles Galaxy.
Look happy, the Beckhams on the sidelines.
(Photo: STACY REVERE/Getty Images via AFP)
The timing could hardly be better: The big professional leagues NFL (football), NBA (basketball) and NHL (ice hockey) are on summer break, and baseball has just started the second half of the regular season. The collective interest now belongs to football – also because of the women’s World Cup, the Americans are supposed to win the third title in a row. How terrific that the soccer saint can be marketed immediately, but is only allowed to get used to it before things get serious on August 20th in the first league game.
So in the first half, Messi watched; they popped it up every five minutes on the streaming service Apple+, who by the way charges $40 for the MLS Messi passport until the end of the season. There is currently an intense debate about the differences in football – speed, intensity, technique. To end the debate once and for all, and Messi should have seen it too: the difference is huge – between men’s football in Europe and men’s football in North America.
After 53 minutes, Messi came on the field, together with his friend Sergio Busquets from their Barça days – and it was Busquets who lived up to his reputation (You can watch a whole game without seeing Busquets, but if you watch Busquets, you can see the whole game): he directed, ordered and he played a no-look sugar pass to Messi in the 85th minute of the game. However, his shot was blocked – like all of Messi’s other attempts to bring about this moment in the first game, maybe even to force it, because he admittedly felt that 22,000 people in the stadium and more than 30,000 others in the parking lot in front of it were just waiting. It had to be, somehow.
He was half pulled, half sank – the rest is history
So: elegant turn and opening pass (66th minute), blocked shot (71st), a bit too playful in a one-two game with Josef Martinez (89th), attempt to convert a corner directly (68th) or flay a penalty (82nd). In the end, it looked like the debut moment might be a converted penalty – cup regulations allow for a point decision in the event of a tie – rather than a cracker like Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s first game in the United States, who volleyed the ball into the net for LA Galaxy from 35 yards.
But then Messi felt a light touch on his shoulder; half pulled, half sank – the rest will from now on be part of the history Messi will write in the US in the years to come. He and Beckham, who shared a big hug afterwards, couldn’t have asked for a better start.