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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Inter Miami played six preseason games last season. Most were held behind closed doors with few spectators, all were held in Florida and probably the biggest news came here when some enthusiasts launched fireworks prematurely and were kicked out of the opening of the exhibition season.
It’s wildly different this season.
That’s how it is in Lionel Messi’s world.
The soccer icon and Inter Miami are on a two-match excursion to Saudi Arabia this week, the first match on Monday against Al-Hilal and the second on Thursday against Al Nassr, a match in which Messi could only once return to the field with his rival and longtime compatriot. wonderful Cristiano Ronaldo, assuming the Portuguese star has recovered enough from a calf injury to play.
The club has already played two exhibitions this year — one in El Salvador, one at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas — and still has matches in Hong Kong and Japan once the Saudi tour ends. It’s necessarily a batch of preseason games around the world, with big crowds, cash and highlights for Inter Miami, which immediately became a global logo when Messi announced last summer that he would be joining the Major League Soccer club.
“It’s unbelievable,” said DeAndre Yedlin, the Inter Miami defender who was captain until Messi’s arrival. “Obviously, it’s not just one man, but I think the focus is on Leo. So, it shows the influence he had on Leo. ” The game and what I had in the game. People need to know what they’re doing. People need to know everything that concerns them, what’s going on. It’s wonderful for the league. It’s wonderful for us.
Inter Miami is in Saudi Arabia thanks to Messi, plain and simple. There is no more important decision in the game than the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and captain of reigning world champions Argentina and Messi, who had won an offer to play. in Saudi Arabia, a country he turned down to sign for the MLS and come to Inter Miami, he is a Saudi ambassador in charge of selling tourism.
He was even suspended once by one of his former clubs, Paris Saint-Germain, for making an unauthorized entry into the country. But Inter Miami not only understands the importance of having Messi, but also welcomes him to this huge preseason era ahead of MLS. season that begins on February 21.
“Having the opportunity to see Messi up close in those cases is very valuable,” Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said in Spanish last week before the team departed for its 13-1/2-hour charter flight to Riyadh. “We have to see how many times those other people are going to get this opportunity. “
The financial benefit of Inter Miami and Messi playing in Saudi Arabia hasn’t been revealed. It’s reasonable to think it’s a big number, enough to help the MLS club offset at least some of Messi’s salary — he’s on a 2 1/2-year contract that will pay him around $150 million — and what the team spent to land the likes of Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez to play with him.
The Saudis have made clear that they’ll spend big for what they want; some have used the term “sportswashing ” when it comes to how the kingdom has spent billions bankrolling LIV Golf and attracting Formula One, boxing, horse racing, even BMX racing and professional wrestling. Much of this comes with great criticism. Messi’s fame hasn’t taken a hit from his association with the Saudis. Such is his power.
“What I like about Saudi Arabia,” Messi says in a marketing crusade for the country, “is that I notice what I didn’t expect. “
The trip itself speaks to how different everything for Inter Miami has become. The club faced Florida International University with no fans allowed in one of its preseason matches last season; this season, it’s facing Ronaldo with the soccer world watching for a result that won’t even count. The team had less than 1 million followers on Instagram; it has 16 million now, many of them no doubt driven there by the half-a-billion followers Messi has on that site.
It makes sense to turn the global upside down into a whole new globality.
“It’s a little bit different and I think the merit is that we can play against other teams, in another type of competition,” Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender said Sunday. “We see it as a challenge to expand as a team. “exposing ourselves to other teams, other leagues. So, I think for us it’s still new, but I think everyone has a smart feeling.
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AP Soccer: https://apnews. com/hub/soccer