FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The stage is set. Lionel Messi will meet his new fans at Inter Miami.
An event dubbed ‘The Unveil’ – or ‘La PresentaSíon’ as the club calls it – will take place at the team’s stadium in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday night. It comes a day after Messi, Major League Soccer and Inter Miami have finalized his contract through the 2025 season.
It’s the start of a busy week full of events for Messi with his new club. A press conference is scheduled for Monday, his first official training session is scheduled for Tuesday and – if everything goes according to plan – he will play in a League Cup game against Cruz Azul on Friday.
The Argentine world champions and seven-time Ballon d’Or winner for the best player in the world in any given year joins a club that has the fewest points in MLS and is on an 11-game winning streak. Inter Miami opened the season with two wins and has been at 3-14-3 ever since.
The club previously announced that Messi’s contract will run for two and a half seasons and will pay him between $50-$60 million annually – the total contract value in cash alone is between $125-$150 million.
“It’s great,” said Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa last month when Messi announced he was moving to MLS and joining Inter Miami. “I got another superstar. Big, big names here in Miami. It’s good for the culture out here.”
There have been some big welcomes for stars coming to South Florida. Shaquille O’Neal pulled up in an 18-wheeler in front of the arena where the Miami Heat was playing in 2004 and greeted the crowd by firing jets of water from a super soaker. In 2010, LeBron James and Chris Bosh were welcomed to the Heat — Dwyane Wade staying with them throughout that massive summer — with a party that picked up about 14,000 tickets over the course of two hours and at which James famously said he was “don’t “There would come two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven” championships.
While that became fuel for pundits, the rest of James’ quote from that moment is often forgotten: “I’m about business and we believe that if we take care of business and get it right, we can win multiple championships.” , he said .
This Heat team won two championships. Inter Miami need Messi to pull off a massive turnaround this season to get into the playoffs.
If anyone can, it’s Messi.
“He’s the best soccer player to ever walk a field,” said heat guard Josh Richardson.
___
More AP Football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer And https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed, or redistributed without permission.
