Inter Miami president, Jorge Mas has come out to put Lionel Messi in the same bracket as Pele. He recently revealed the details of a vital 2019 transfer meeting, and fans have been reacting.
According to him, everyone told him he was crazy to think Messi could be an Inter Miami player someday, but he and David Beckham managed to make that dream come true eventually.
Mas added that Pele, Beckham and Messi will now go down in history as the faces that changed American football.
His words, “I always aspired to sign Messi. Everyone told me I was crazy to think he would come to Inter Miami. In 2019 I arranged a meeting with Jorge Messi. David Beckham and I explained to Jorge for three hours the project and there I went to sell the Miami concept. I see the history of soccer in America with three important dates: Pele, when he arrived in 1972 at Cosmos, Beckham’s arrival in Los Angeles and Messi’s arrival in Miami.”
“I told him, ‘Your son will have the opportunity to create a new legacy because he is going to be able to change a sport in a country,’ and that is given in very few opportunities to an athlete.”
“I kept in constant communication with Jorge, it was four and a half years of convincing Lionel and having him decide with his family. I never lost faith. I was convinced that Lionel Messi was going to come to Miami. I spent a lot of time talking to Lionel about Miami, about his family, about his future and I saw that there was a great possibility of being able to close something after the World Cup, in January or February.”
WOW.
Lionel Andrés Messi, also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record seven Ballon d’Or awards and a record six European Golden Shoes, and in 2020 he was named to the Ballon d’Or Dream Team.
Until leaving the club in 2021, he had spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he won a club-record 35 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles and the UEFA Champions League four times.
With his country, he won the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 FIFA World Cup. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (474), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (eight), and most assists in La Liga (192) and the Copa América (17).
He also has the most international goals by a South American male (103). Messi has scored over 800 senior career goals for club and country, and has the most goals by a player for a single club (672).
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