North American Leagues Cup
Added-time winner: Messi-mania in Miami
Celebrated man in Miami: Lionel Messi (M). photo
© Lynne Sladky/AP/dpa
Lionel Messi’s first appearance for Inter Miami delivers what the club bosses around David Beckham hoped for: attention and success. The stars come – and the world footballer scores to win.
Even the biggest stars paid homage Lionel Messi after his dream debut for Inter Miami. “What a great start,” tweeted German national soccer player Thomas Müller on Saturday morning.
“Incredible,” wrote basketball player LeBron James in capital letters – and co-owner David Beckham stood in the margin with tears in his eyes. A superbly converted free-kick in the fourth minute of added time saw Messi fire Inter Miami on their debut in a 2-1 North American Leagues Cup win against Mexican club Cruz Azul.
“Knew I had to score”
“What I saw was the goal,” said the 36-year-old Argentine in a first interview on the field during the post-game celebrations. “I knew I had to score.” He just makes it sound. It looked easy too. It was a situation that was made for the world footballer: a free kick in injury time from a central position just behind the edge of the penalty area. Messi stroked the ball into the left corner with his magic left foot. The rest was ecstasy and fireworks.
The excitement about the world champion was already huge. Around 21,000 spectators came – including LeBron James, Serena Williams, Gloria Estefan and Kim Kardashian. Of course, Miami co-owner Beckham’s family was there too. They insisted on taking souvenir photos of this memorable day.
Messi first took a seat on the bench, right next to the prominent fans. Smiling, he gave basketballer James a long hug, who commented on his channels: “Welcome bro. Always nice to see awesomeness and be around you.”
Dissolved Messi
Messi seemed relaxed, kept waving at the audience, and at half-time he warmed up for a few minutes. In the 54th minute of the game, the world champion came into play with enthusiastic applause – together with the recently committed Spanish ex-world champion Sergio Busquets. “Great things are going to happen. I feel the same desire I’ve always had as a competitor and I want to win and help Miami grow,” the 36-year-old Messi said at his presentation last week.
The still young club can use that: Inter Miami has not won in eleven games in the American Major League Soccer (MLS) and is currently in last place in the Eastern Conference. That is one of the reasons why the club has now upgraded and, in addition to Messi, has signed long-time Spanish internationals Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba from FC Barcelona for coach Gerardo Martino’s team. Miami is said to have cost more than 100 million US dollars – for Messi moments like this Friday evening in Fort Lauderdale.
Video of Messi’s winning goal LeBron James on Instagram