‘It’s like a movie’: And the soccer gods somehow gifted Inter Miami with Lionel Messi, amen | Opinion

For brief, magical moments in the Nashville night, Lionel Messi was flying late Saturday night, prone and looking at the stars and bouncing on air, as if on a trampoline instead of the hands of joyous teammates tossing him skyward in celebration.

He looked like a kid, a grin on his face.

“Being able to get our first title would be beautiful for everyone,” Messi had said.

Done.

By the soccer gods that would somehow deliver the greatest player ever to Inter Miami, it is done, amen.

Miami in its fourth season in Major League Soccer held the first trophy it has won, the garishly, gloriously large Leagues Cup silver chalace. With it comes $2 million and a ticket into the round of 16 of next year’s CONCACAF Champions Cup tournament.

Forty-seven teams from MLS and Mexico’s top Liga MX competed in the annual North American bragging-rights competition, and the men in pink stood last because one, at age 36 and standing but 5-7, stood tallest. Again.

Messi scored his 10th goal in seven matches since the Argentine legend and Barcelona icon gifted himself to Miami. His goal in the 23rd minute was impossibly Messi as he skittered through traffic in the box and unleashed a left-footed missile into the upper left corner of the net.

The game would stand 1-1 entering penalty kicks vs. fellow MLS club Nashville. Messi would score again in the marathon shootout penalty round as Miami would finally prevail 10-9 on PKs, with goalkeeper Drake Callender scoring Miami’s last penalty and then heroically denying his counterpart’s shot to end the match.

(Messi had nearly won it in regulation in the 71st minute, his shot ricocheting off the right post)

As Messi was lifted in the air on his victory ride afterward, the club’s principal owner, Jorge Mas, promised, “This will be the first of many trophies for this team.”

Founding part owner David Beckham and wife Victoria hugged on the field and, in a tender moment, the usually stoic-appearing former Posh Spice dabbed her eyes with a tissue as the emotion of the moment took over.

“It’s like a movie,” David Beckham said.

Nobody would believe the script, though. Too preposterous. Thoroughly unrealistic. But it’s happening.

What Messi has done the past month is entirely flip the script on everything about Inter Miami, image to results.

This team had been a massive disappointment through 3 1/2 years of existence, boasting the glitz and glamour of Beckham as its face and figurehead but with little else to show.

It’s as if Inter Miami was snakebit. Born into a pandemic -- COVID restrictions hitting literally the week of the franchise’s inaugural season opener in 2020. Controversy and delays on a new stadium forcing the club to an emergency home in Fort Lauderdale. League sanctions for roster and financial irregularities.

And haplessness on the pitch -- five wins, three draws and 14 losses in the MLS regular season thus far, last place in the entire league and the playoffs seemingly out of range with 12 games left to play.

Nothing was going right.

Then Messi made everything right.

With his decision to come to Miami.

And with skills vibrantly intact at 36.

Now the Leagues Cup trophy is in hand but there is no rest for the euphoric.

Miami plays at Cincinnati (which sits atop the ML:S East standings) this Wednesday night in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, two wins away from that storied trophy.

Then this coming Saturday Miami resumes its MLS regular season schedule at the New York Red Bulls -- the playoffs and even a championship run no longer preposterous despite the awful record Messi inherits.

Then there will be the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup invitation won with the Leagues Cup title.

Also in 2024, Inter Miami has reportedly earned an historic invitation to play in the prestigious Copa Libertadores, a tournament usually restricted to South American clubs. Because of Messi, that’s why.

The Leagues Cup marked the record 44th trophy Messi has earned in his storied career, including of course the most recent World Cup for Argentina.

Now more are within grasp on the horizon for Messi and Inter Miami -- the very words, Messi and Inter Miami -- still difficult to fathom.

“Like a movie,” David Beckham had called it.

Only better. Because it’s real.