It's not about beating Miami at that point. It's about messing up Messi badly. At the end of the day, he's still a human being. He's not God.
Messi will now be the new golden child and untouchable on the field per MLS dictate. If you brush up against him it's an instant sending off.
"coaching one of the greatest players of the past decade is undoubtedly an attractive prospect". Is that what Messi is? Such a great honor for him to be acknowledged by a world renown dirtysouth.
The Beckham signing blew my mind back then, it was surreal. The Messi signing seems pretty expected by comparison. We need a shock Pulisic move to really make things exciting (and funny because of the meltdowns).
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I'm glad Messi is signing with MLS as it will be good for home and away fans, TV etc. . . On the other, I wish he would have signed 4-5 years ago because we need more Under 26 not Over 36's year olds. .... In the end, I do think it's a positive signing for the league and hope more superstars come over.
I hope somehow Miami qualifies for CCL next year. The thought of Messi playing on some of those fields and him having to deal with CONCACAF shenanigans is hilarious to me.
This move is awesome! It should be great for the MLS, to generate more interest for the league and for the game. I think it's great for Messi too, following the career footsteps of Pele and Cruyff in coming to play in the US. I hope the league changes its schedule design, so that teams get to visit every city next year. It would be a great way to maximize the interest that having Lio will generate, to have it impact every MLS franchise. Personally it won’t affect me, I’ll travel to watch him, but I think it would have a huge impact for the game in San Jose, where the sports media mostly ignores the Quakes, and I'd be very pissed if Inter with Lio doesn't come to the Bay Area next year. Nice for the league to get some recognition during the NBA finals. The “Miami welcomes Leonel Messi” announcement got a huge ovation in Miami, even though the Heat were getting their ass kicked.
I think they should have more games. But yeah, 28 is probably too much, maybe they can have a visit to every city within every two seasons.
Richie was actually a very nice guy .... don't think he would do anything malicious. As for tackling Messi down hard - he has a history of making people look very foolish when they try to do it. Better strategy is to just try and cover all the players he could pass it to. And he is going to walk 75% of the game as it is ... bigger challenge for Miami will be the rest of the squad and coaching and training ... at the end of the day this is about family and lifestyle as the GOAT transitions to the next phase of his life. very happy that he will be in the MLS ... he will hopefully provide constructive criticism to help the league make good steps forward. Perhaps he and Tata will point out the MLS need for quality coaches from overseas to come here. for me - one thing is for sure - I am going to travel and splash the money to see him play .... there are only so many times you get to see masters at their craft ... kind of like Steve Vai or the Edge playing ....
That might be possible, if they made some major changes to the conference system. If he plays through the end of 2025, he will probably hit everywhere.
The timing is still pretty good all things considered. I really didn’t want to see him spend one or two more years in Europe and then try MLS at the very end. It was pretty much now or never for me.
Not so sure. I've followed the game for almost 50 years and I never knew a soccer player who was considered to be young or in his prime at 36 years of age. PSG fans recently booed him off the field so that isn't a great look for any team or league. It’s a great signing in terms of exposure, marketing , TV , attendance etc., but I am not so sure how good it is or will be in terms of quality. Either way, I do hope it will turn out great.