Messi to MLS!
- Thread starter rguilmar
- Start date
Yeah I just checked and I'll be out of town when Miami comes to Audi Field in DC on July 8. Dammit!
Damn it. Miami plays at Gillette on Saturday. Pretty sure he's not going to make it into town by then.
Are they going to change their name to Inter Fort Lauderdale yet?
it’s an ok temporary stadium, but a disaster for parking if it’s full
it’s an ok temporary stadium, but a disaster for parking if it’s full
They don't practice dynamic pricing right? Will this break Ticketmaster like Taylor Swift?
Beckham didn't think Neville could effectively coach Messi?
edit: I just checked Ticketmaster. Ticket prices have skyrocketed (in relative terms), and ticket inventory plummeted for 10/4
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Inter South Florida and Chicago definitely do for single games
Not sure about Gillette and the other road teams
I'm intrigued. I have family from Argentina so I watched every Argentina match in the World Cup. I watched a few free matches when Apple launched its MLS coverage, but I fell off as the season went on. I'll occassionally watch a few minutes of the free match of the week. But Messi is enough to get me to take another, closer look.
I'm just sad he's not coming to Seattle so I can sell my tickets.
That said, I'm pretty excited about this. Very curious what effect this has on the league in terms of other players coming over.
That said, I'm pretty excited about this. Very curious what effect this has on the league in terms of other players coming over.
Inter South Florida have already either sold out of Seasons (2023) or they have taken them down to dynamically reprice.
Mixed emotions. I’m glad that MLS has continued to improve in terms of the quality of play, that they’ve become a sellers league and not just a retirement location. I hope that.Messi would not undercut the organic growth by making it all about the star, and then may be starting a bidding war where Atlanta feels like they’ve got to go out and spend for Kane, or whatever.
It's interesting because in a lot of ways it is not how the savviest MLS teams operate right now, though obviously both a commercial and likely a talent slam dunk (Messi is not what he once was but is still Messi). It might well open the permission structure for more high-level players at the end of their career to come over as a turbo-charged MLS 2.0 thing, but I don't expect the teams signing young South American talent to sell on or developing US players to stop doing that in order to chase Lewandowski or whoever.
Counterpoint. One of the few remaining MLS/NFL owners should absolutely call Harry Kane's "gosh it would be neat to be an NFL kicker" bluff/idle thought that he brings up every so often and have that dude Deion Sanders it for two seasons in both leagues.
I don't know if it's a "good" idea, but I do know that it is an idea that rules.
He should've gone back to Barcelona, until he was no longer up to that level of play. The PR value of going to Miami would've remained, almost undiminished, in future years. But returning to Barca would (will) not.
Great get for MLS, though. No flies on them.
Am seriously considering @NYRB on 8/26, or @ DC on 7/8 if I thought he'd be taking the field by then.
Great get for MLS, though. No flies on them.
Am seriously considering @NYRB on 8/26, or @ DC on 7/8 if I thought he'd be taking the field by then.
Tickets for the Inter Miami match at RBA are already up to nearly $400 for the nosebleeds - a 20x increase from other matches. If you didn't get them already it's gonna be pricy.
Still a retirement league. Some things never change in MLS.
Too bad they aren’t coming to Portland this summer, I’d be selling for as much as I could get and cover my season ticket expense real fast.
Too bad they aren’t coming to Portland this summer, I’d be selling for as much as I could get and cover my season ticket expense real fast.
Who is the last star to come to MLS and actually perform well after they’re past their prime?
Also.. I’m currently in Barcelona and they were expecting/ hoping he’d return.
Inter is at FC Cincinnati on 10/7. My bit for travel and tourism, Cincinnati's stadium is amazing. A friend of mine invited me to a regular season match with him back in March since he has season tix. I am so glad to have procrastinated. Texted him about .0000001 seconds after hearing the news.
I mean, for established European players, it absolutely is. No one is giving up years of their prime to come to the MLS.
Messi is still very good, and he’s going to make some defenders looks hilariously silly, but he is certainly a couple of years beyond his best. Probably at the same stage Beckham was at in terms of career when he moved to LA.
Messi is not very good, he's arguably still the best player in the world. Beckham was never close to that level.
As serious as the Timbers currently on an 8 straight unbeaten streak in Seattle.
What time was this? I checked at 10am and it was already at $80 for nosebleeds.
But he won't actually play this season right? He's waiting until the next MLS season?
"A place where players go when they are older and not quite at the level of the Big Five any more" describes a lot of places that somehow don't get the derogatory "retirement league" label.
Anderlecht employs Jan Vertonghen. Retirement league!
Ajax has guys like Martin Stekelenburg and Dusan Tadic, and had a long run with post-Big-5 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. Retirement league!
Benfica has Nicolas Otamendi. Porto has Pepe. Retirement league!
I think when he wants to be. He clearly was able to turn it on for the World Cup. Not saying he didn’t try at PSG, but his success there was clearly below his high standard.
The MLS doesn’t look like a particular challenge that he needs to conquer. There are no Champion’s League games to prepare for and he may not even play in the next World Cup.
I don’t doubt that we’ll see some fun clips of Messi hammering a couple of free kicks and turning a fulllback or two in circles, but he doesn’t seem to have anything to play for moving to the MLS.
Isn't there some CONCAAF Champions League? The Lamar Hunt Cup too? Trophies to win....
That was 9am.
The secondary transfer window opens July 5, so Messi could be registered then. It sounds like there’s still many details to hammer out about the contracts - can you even imagine the team of lawyers Messi has working in his image rights, commercial rights, assessing conflicts with existing sponsors, etc?
And surely Messi will want some recovery time. He’s played a full season and a full World Cup the past 10 months. He may take some time off and then develop a plan to build up minutes.
The best part of this has to be the American soccer fans twisting themselves in knots to rip Messi, only because they hate MLS.
Otamendi just won a World Cup, didn't he?
Honestly though, would anyone have a problem if MLS became similar to the Brazilian league? Produce and export lots of talent, keep the next tier at home, and bring home the stars when they're past their prime along with some older foreigners. Pretty sure Suarez is there now.
I think the "next season" stuff is a misunderstanding by Fab when he tweeted the confirmation. Pretty sure he is suiting up for Miami in July.
Thankfully I haven't seen any of that. And it would be truly weird, if you think about it. MLS haters generally fall into two (non mutually exclusive) buckets:
1) I want USMNT players to play at the highest levels in the world, which probably means Europe and particularly means Big 5.
2) I personally have become a fan of Big 5 (usually EPL) football, and so I'm just not an MLS fan and/or feel the need to look down on it.
Group 1 should be stoked that the quality level of MLS has improved enough, and the business fundamentals enough, to pull in a guy like Messi who 6 months ago was a linchpin of the world champions. Better MLS = better US talent development and competitive environment for USMNT prospects.
Group 2, unless they were Barca or PSG fans, should be happy too, because even if you think the quality of play in MLS is too poor for you to deign to watch, Messi coming means it's getting better, and soon you may have football worth watching that you can actually attend in person.
Other than Barca fans, I haven't seen anyone upset about the deal. Have you? Or are.you just assuming MLS haters are going to hate under all circumstances?
FIFA is expanding the Club World Cup in ‘25 and wants it to be a bigger deal. If I squint I could see Messi dragging Miami to qualification in ‘24 and making a run, and everybody paying attention to that (otherwise generally ignored) tournament. He won it with Barca of course.
I guess the other part of the equation is Inter Miami is objectively one of the worst teams in the league presently.
Obviously Messi makes them significantly better, but Messi alone isn’t going to carry them to relevance. It’s possible they look to sign a few of Messi’s recently departed friends in Busquets and Alba, but they have work to do apart from just Messi.
Agreed. But you never know once MLS starts making special rules.
View: https://twitter.com/gastonedul/status/1666495549392969747?s=20
I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing about some new roster / salary amendments that only apply to teams wearing pink.
On one hand, I don’t care because I don’t really follow the MLS and if they’re going to do whatever it takes to pull Messi, then at least let him be surrounded with some actual players so it will be entertaining.
On the other hand, lol this is why it was called a retirement league and no one takes it seriously.
