‘Leo has changed everything’ – Beckham hails Messi's Inter Miami revolution
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 4 Oct 2023 22:24 BST
- 4 min read
Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham has revealed that signing Lionel Messi to the MLS club was the culmination of more than a decade of work – including a covert visit to the hotel of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner’s dad.
Messi left PSG as a free agent in the summer after a couple of testing years with the French side and there was tremendous speculation over what his next move might be.
The 36-year-old was linked with a potential switch back to Barcelona, while there was also speculation that he could join the increasing ranks of superstars in the Saudi Pro League.
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Instead, he chose to move to Beckham’s Inter Miami franchise, where he has revolutionised the perception of soccer in the USA.
The Manchester United and Real Madrid legend spoke out about the hours he put into the move on Sky Sports’ ‘Stick to Football’ podcast.
“My vision was always to bring the best players to Inter Miami. As the owner of a team, you always want to sign the best players, but its challenging,” Beckham said.
MORE: Messi 'interested' in Real Madrid star joining him at Inter Miami
“I sneaked into Messi’s dad’s hotel about four years ago in Barcelona for a meeting with him. At that point, we weren’t ready to bring him and he wasn’t ready to come. I told his dad: ‘We want him to come to Miami when he’s read.’
“We continued the conversations and we worked on it for four years.
“When he was at PSG, we saw an opportunity. He was either going to go back to Barcelona… Then everything aligned and we were still having the conversations.
We knew it would change the club, the league and the sport, but it’s beyond that
- David Beckham“We knew it would change the club, the league and the sport, but it’s beyond that. What he does on the pitch, what he does off the pitch.
“To bring someone like him is the dream. And also Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. But to bring Leo has changed everything. The academy kids have someone else to look up to who has won everything. He’s teaching them.”
Beckham feared Barcelona pull
Messi has scored 11 goals and created five assists in his 12 outings for Inter Miami, more than living up to the hopes that Beckham had of his impact at the club.
He feared, however, that the prospect of returning to Barcelona may derail the MLS side’s hopes of signing the superstar.
Asked how he reacted to the news that Messi would sign, he said: “It was more emotional than it should have been.
“We’d made the offer but he’d had offers from Saudi, to go back to Barcelona, and the Barcelona one worried me. It pulled on his heartstrings. He never got to say a proper goodbye at Barcelona, but then it was down to him to decide.
“His dad had called us that week and said Leo would make an announcement. We were waiting and I was in Japan working. It was 5am and my phone was going mad. I picked it up and I saw a barrage of messages that he’d come out and done his interview.
“We wanted him to announce it in his way. He was sitting in his hotel room filming it with his mate. I was very emotional about it because it’s taken a lot of hard work to get here.”
Messi is currently fighting injury, putting his participation in Wednesday’s MLS fixture against the Chicago Fire in doubt.
