Lionel Messi, the most successful player in football history, has won 42 titles in 13 different competitions in his career. Now, upon his arrival in Miami, the Argentine star will have the opportunity to compete in four different tournaments (with six titles in dispute) to add to his personal record. Of course, it will not be easy for him, since his new team has never won a title in its short four years of existence.
Until today, Messi has been champion of all the competitions in which he has participated, with the exception of the French Cup, where he fell in the round of 16 both seasons in which he was with Paris Saint-Germain. With Inter Miami, the Argentine will debut in MLS, the Leagues Cup, the US Open Cup and, if they manage to qualify, in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
The MLS is the league competition in which 29 teams from the United States and Canada (although mostly American) participate. It consists of two phases, the regular season and the playoffs, and in which a team can add up to three different trophies throughout the season. For the first phase the teams are divided into two Conferences, 15 in the East and 14 in the West.
In the regular season, Inter Miami will have a total of 34 games, 17 at home and 17 away, in which they will face teams from the same Conference (the East) twice and once against those from the Western Conference. In the end, the first 7 teams in the Conference table advance to the playoffs and those located in positions 8 and 9 enter a playoff.
Once the regular season is over, a title can be obtained, the Supporters’ Shield. It is awarded to the team that obtains the most points in the regular season, that is, there is a table in which all 29 teams are brought together and the score after 34 days determines the winner of this trophy. The two teams that finish first in their respective Conferences are also recognized as Conference winners in the regular season, but are not awarded a trophy.
Currently, Inter Miami is last both in the general table and in its Conference, with only 18 points and very far from the 51 that FC Cincinnati adds in the first position of both classifications, so it is practically impossible for the team from Florida lifted that title this year.
It will remain for 2024 when Messi can play the full season, and they seek to win the Supporters’ Shield. But returning to MLS, once the regular season is over, he goes on to play the second round: the playoffs.
A new format will be implemented in the playoffs this year. In the first round it will be played in the style of the NBA, where the teams will compete in the best of three games. Then it will be the semifinals and finals of the Conference, played in a single game. Each team that wins the final of their Conference gets a trophy for being the champion of their division. In addition, these two clubs obtain a pass to play the MLS Cup, for the title of MLS champion, in a single game.
Inter Miami, in its first three seasons, has only reached the playoffs once: it was in 2022 and they lost in the first round. This season does not seem to be ideal either, since they are last in their Conference with 11 points remaining, yes, even with 13 games to play. Messi’s impact would have to be immediate for his team to seek to get into the fight for those two titles.
This year this new competition was officially introduced. It consists of a regional tournament in which all 29 MLS teams and all 18 of Liga MX, Mexico’s first division, participate. A group stage and a knockout stage will be played, all in the United States between July 21 and August 19.
There will be 15 groups of three teams each, and they will play only once against the two group rivals. The first two places in each group advance to the round of 32, and from there the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and the final will be played, all in a single game.
Inter Miami is located in their group along with Atlanta United of the MLS and the Mexican Cruz Azul, and everything indicates that it will be precisely against the latter when Messi makes his debut with his new team. It will be next July 21 at the DRV PNK Stadium, the new home of the Argentine star.
This is the Cup tournament, played exclusively by American teams, although not all from MLS. Clubs from different competitions in the United States also participate, including non-professional teams. This year there were a total of 100 teams from all over the country that started the tournament. The format consists of 4 previous rounds, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and the final, all in a single match.
This is the trophy that is closest to Messi this season, since in the current edition Inter Miami managed to get into the semifinals. There they will play against FC Cincinnati on August 23 for a pass to the final on September 27.
The CONCACAF regional club competition, made up of the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean, is the equivalent of the European Champions League. Until now, Inter Miami has never qualified for the Champions Cup.
If they want to play the 2024 edition, they will have to look for a ticket through one of the other tournaments. The MLS grants five berths, the Leagues Cup three and the US Open Cup only one. And it is precisely in the Cup tournament, in which they have the closest possibility of qualifying, but they will only do so if they win the Cup.
If they manage to get there, they will have to go through a first round, round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals, all in a double game, plus the final in a single game against rivals from all over the region to be crowned the CONCACAF champions. The next edition of this championship will take place during the first semester of 2024.
Everything is ready for the official arrival of Messi in Miami, while his team prepares to change its history and start adding titles with the seven-time Ballon d’Or in its squad. And the question arises, how many trophies will Lionel Messi lift with Inter Miami?
