A sprinkling of stardust emerged from the pink doors at Inter Miami’s smart training base early yesterday morning, the epitome of Sir David Beckham’s assault on American sport, prompting the shuttering of cameras, the jostling of TV crews for a perfect shot, as the awkward megastar Lionel Messi walked out to train.
The glitz and glamour of a club not yet eight years old – the team on the other side of the world whose gear you can purchase at Marks & Spencer – feels at odds with these surroundings.
The Chase Stadium, modest in size, has the same temporary stands seen at county cricket grounds for England cricket Tests and Miami are counting down the days until arriving at their new $1billion (£740m) home, 33 miles south and close to the tourist hubs.
It doesn’t yet feel befitting of its star player, the greatest ever player, Messi – or LeBron James, Eva Longoria, Julia Roberts, Serena Williams or Kim Kardashian, with the A-listers flocking to Fort Lauderdale for a glimpse of Beckham’s project in MLS, even if the local taxi drivers prefer to discuss their love of the Premier League instead. Tom Cruise might be at the Club World Cup opener with Al Ahly in the early hours of Sunday.
Miami bring up the curtain to this shiny revamp of FIFA’s afterthought. It’s Messi in the Magic City on opening night, it’s eyeballs on the Beckham franchise, it’s something of a poll on how far MLS has developed or otherwise.
‘We know how the club is improving now,’ former Liverpool and Barcelona superstar Luis Suarez, reunited with Messi in Miami, told Mail Sport. ‘The last two years we’ve had so many people here to see us. We keeping going up and the next two or three years Inter Miami will become bigger and bigger.’
David Beckham’s Inter Miami lured Lionel Messi over to the US in 2023
Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian have come to watch Inter Miami since Messi’s arrival
All eyes will be on Messi against when Inter Miami play in the opening game of the Club World Cup
Miami won the MLS Supporters’ Shield – a title handed to the team accruing the most points in a league campaign across America’s two conferences, before the end-of-year playoffs – and when the decision to award a spot to what’s supposed to be a showcase of the elite on the strength of that raised eyebrows, Miami were invited to grab a host place anyway.
‘When he doesn’t look great, it’s because one of us is failing, that’s the truth,’ Mascherano said.
Injuries have hit this season and Mascherano’s credentials are under severe scrutiny after replacing the great Gerardo Martino in November. Defeats by Minnesota United and Orlando City led to merciless mocking by their victors on social media, the former describing Miami as a ‘Pink Phony Club’, a reference to a hit song by American singer Chappell Roan.
Beckham, who owns a $73m (£54m) mansion overlooking Biscayne Bay just down the coast, was none too pleased, responding by asking for more class.
Sceptics have suggested that Infantino seized upon two separate loopholes to make sure Miami are here, with the man who donned a bisht during the trophy lift at the end of a personal international odyssey at the last World Cup in Saudi Arabia front and centre.
FIFA’s drive to fill as much of the 65,000 Hard Rock Stadium (home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins) as possible saw prices slashed for a spell and then incentivised offers to Miami Dade College students of $20 tickets with the promise of four freebies alongside.
That, to be fair, is not Miami’s fault and the idea that Messi would sell this out himself was probably ill-conceived given anyone in the area who wanted to study his game would have done so by now.
When employees at the club were openly admitting that they were building a brand not a team in the fraught opening years of their tenure, then this weekend is what co-owner Jorge Mas had in mind, the utopia of Beckham’s dream in what we now forget was such a long struggle, full of problems with stadia, to just start moving.
Selena Gomez went viral with her reaction to Messi being denied a goal during a match
Inter Miami won the Leagues Cup shortly after Messi arrived at the club in 2023
Luis Suarez insists Inter Miami are improving after splashing their cash to get their project off the ground
Messi has, in effect, accelerated the growth since joining in 2023. It required buy-in from plenty of different sides to make sure an annual wealth package of around £100million – including endorsements outside of his salary – was doable.
They’ve doubled revenues since the Argentine’s arrival and are predicted to become the first MLS club to break €200m (£170m). Only LAFC, who are in Chelsea’s group at this tournament, are calculated to be worth more.
That said, the seemingly cheap tickets being limited to such a small part of a stadium does have echoes of the battles being fought by supporters across the Premier League.
Large swathes of the Chase Stadium, with its 21,500 capacity, go at significantly higher mark-ups and a ticket on the second row, level with the six-yard box, fetches $1,200 (£883). That’s before resale stubs on Ticketmaster which, for Atlanta and at the time of writing, reached $1,652 (£1,215).
So the revenues are hardly surprising and the key bit for Miami is how to navigate their post-Messi truth. Sources close to the forward and club have confirmed that negotiations over a new contract are advanced and both sides hope the star man will be here through 2026 upon the opening of their permanent home at Miami Freedom Park stadium, closer to the city and the main airport.
Rivals look at Miami with some envy but surprisingly not jealousy or hatred. Actually, they circle the home fixture in the calendar and hold meetings on how best to capitalise on the Messi show rolling into town. How they perform off the pitch that day can have major implications on annual budgets. Attendances double.
There is a feeling in the boardrooms across the Eastern and Western conferences, comprising 30 clubs with the recent influx of new franchises, that a strong Miami truly contributes to a strong MLS.
There is a passion about growing the sport and people talk with reverence for Mas, of how Beckham regularly attends home and away matches.
Inter Miami have brought in Jordi Alba (left) and Sergio Busquets (right) to play alongside Messi and Suarez
Inter Miami were also interested in signing Kevin De Bruyne before he joined Napoli, showing the ambition of the club
Perhaps that is eased by the fact that Miami have not bought the league. They might have tried – and nobody can argue with that idea, with Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba also on the books, with Gonzalo Higuain before them and the legal embarrassment for violating the salary cap in signing French midfielder Blaise Matuidi – but have not succeeded. They registered an interest in Kevin De Bruyne before he went off to Naples.
Maybe no real success does help soften stances and maybe attitudes change were Miami to start bossing MLS. Nobody else is really investing in fading geniuses anymore, preferring younger stars instead, while some Miami fans want more faith in their kids. The academy sides are pitted against the best around the world in international tournaments and are apparently producing real talent.
‘There are a lot of players who’ve come through,’ homegrown midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi, 20, told Mail Sport. ‘We’re the engine of this team, who can run and compete. The four big players are the main players, super important for us, but I feel like everyone contributes. You absorb everything they do. We learn from what we see. Just watch, talk and learn.’
As it is, last year’s early elimination from the playoffs is their best finish. Alba labelled the play-off format, a staple of American sport, ‘unfair’.
Busquets has talked about leaving his comfort zone since joining from Barcelona, to a new culture. But the idea of his move to Florida was the exact opposite: rather to offer normality and continuity instead.
