Lionel Messi shares Ballon d’Or trophy with adoring fans before Inter Miami loss to NYCFC
Inter Miami CF’s vision, just like Major League Soccer’s, was always bold and yet it’s hard to imagine a night like Friday was ever something anyone would have truly believed.
Lionel Messi stood at midfield at DRV PNK Stadium, with the lights down and a spotlight fixed on him. By now, this isn’t anything unusual in Fort Lauderdale. Inter Miami spent years trying to set itself up as the place for the Argentine superstar to finish his career, just like MLS has done for dozens of stars since David Beckham started the trend more than 15 years ago. What was extraordinary was the trophy he held in his left hand: the Ballon d’Or, the trophy that says he’s still the best player in the world.
“It’s beautiful to share it with you all,” Messi said in Spanish after lifting the trophy for the crowd to see.
Messi’s first five months with Miami could hardly have gone better and his new team ended 2023 with yet another celebration in South Florida. Messi, 36, won his record eighth Ballon d’Or last month, becoming the first MLS player to win the trophy given out annually to the best player in the world and Miami celebrated it Saturday with a friendly against New York City FC, billed as part of the “Noche d’Or.”
The Ballon d’Or, which covered 12 months from the middle of 2022 through July of this year, is his mostly because of what Messi did before he got to Florida, but his five months with Miami were maybe even more mesmerizing. After he led Argentina to its first World Cup title since 1986 at the end of last year and flamed out with Paris Saint-Germain F.C. of France’s Ligue 1 in June, Messi turned down the promise of a monstrous payday in Saudi Arabia or a potential return to FC Barcelona of Spain’s La Liga to come to the United States and add a whole new unforgettable chapter to his legacy.
He was not the first international megastar to come to America. He will not be the last. Still, there will never be anything like this again.
Miami was the worst team in Major League Soccer when Messi arrived. It won the Leagues Cup, beating out the best of MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX, less than two months later.
Miami was a team stuck in limbo when Messi arrived, stuck playing in a placeholder stadium in Fort Lauderdale and not-so patiently waiting for a superstar to finally don those striking pink jerseys. In the second half of 2022, Miami was one of the biggest draws in all of sports, let alone MLS.
An MLS playoff game was happening later in the day in Seattle and yet Don Garber was in Fort Lauderdale for a friendly, instead.
“You, Inter Miami fans, have the best player who’s ever played the game,” the MLS commissioner said, introducing Messi ahead of the pregame ceremony.
Messi lived up to the hype from Day 1, scoring a game-winning goal on a free kick in the final minute of his first game back in June, and finished his first calendar year with Miami with 11 goals in 15 games across all competitions. He did not come to the US to retire, but to take his already historic level of stardom to even greater heights.
On the “Noche d’Or,” he started again, played all 90 minutes and stepped up to do what he does best on the final kick of the game in stoppage time. From about 25 feet away, he tried a game-tying free kick with the crowd chanting his name.
His shot went just a few feet high. Miami lost 2-1.
South Florida will have to wait a few more months for another chance to cheer on Messi, but, even in his late 30s, there are no signs he won’t give Florida more to celebrate.
“I’ve been here for a short time,” Messi said, “but it seems like a long time.”
