Leo Messi is already the new Inter Miami player coach. The Argentine soccer player was presented on Sunday night in the city of Florida amid great media expectation. “I am very happy that I chose this project with my family, I come here with a lot of desire to compete and win,” he said from a packed DRV PNK Stadium, in Fort Lauderdale, north of Miami, during his official presentation as the brand new number ten of the American Major League Soccer club.
The winner of seven Ballon d’Ors stated during his brief speech, which he gave in Spanish, that he assumes this new professional stage with the desire to help the club continue to grow, precisely at a time when the institution has gone eleven consecutive games without knowing victory . Under a light rain, Messi thanked the city for the welcome they have given him, as well as the owners of the club, the brothers Jorge and José Mas and the former English soccer player David Beckham.
“I am sure that very nice things are going to happen,” said the new world champion with Argentina, moments before being accompanied in the center of the field by his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their three children. Victoria Beckham and the former player’s children, among other close friends, also appeared on the pitch.
Previously, the Spanish international Sergio Busquets appeared on the pitch to also be presented as a club player and posed with a shirt with the number five on the back. “I’m very excited to start training and playing soon,” the former FC Barcelona player said in a few words in English, whose signing was confirmed this Sunday by Inter Miami.
The captain of the albiceleste will debut with his new team on July 21 when Inter Miami hosts the Mexican Cruz Azul for the Leagues Cup, a new tournament that the MLS and Liga MX teams will play until August 19 . “It’s really a dream come true to receive Lionel Messi at Inter Miami,” Beckham said, minutes before the Argentine appeared, to applause from the club’s supporters.
“The next stage of our history begins now,” emphasized the Englishman, who was proud that the Argentine international chose Inter Miami and MLS as the destination for his next professional stage.
“It’s really a dream come true to host Lionel Messi at Inter Miami,” an emotional Beckham told the more than 20,000 people who filled the stadium, an appreciation shared by his partner Jorge Mas. “This is holy water,” exclaimed the businessman of Cuban origin, in a play on words with the rain that was falling at that moment, the aftermath of a powerful electrical storm that began minutes before the doors opened and forced the stoppage of the start of the act for about two hours.
The Unveil, as the presentation event was called, featured fireworks, lights and musical presentations by Camilo, Tiago PZK and Paulo Londra, but it was blurred by a storm with lightning and downpours that forced the start to be postponed and modify the event schedule.
Messi joins the club for the next two and a half years, during which time he will receive a salary of up to $150 million, not to mention other variable income: a percentage of revenue from Apple TV subscriptions — which he owns the rights to watch the MLS for ten seasons— and another percentage of the profits of Adidas, a sports brand that sponsors both the American and Argentine leagues.
