Messi Mania is amazing — and fun! But there’s one glaring problem with this show

Soccer’s Taylor Swift arrived in Frisco on Sunday night, and ... Messi looks smaller in person. The man is only 5-foot-7.

(It is a scientific fact that with the exception of select NFL and NBA players, all famous people are indeed smaller in person).

This is Taylor’s Summer, but when Lionel Messi left Paris Saint-German to play for Inter Miami CF of MLS in June his impact has been Swift (I know, that’s awful).

Messi Mania is an economic jet stream. Tickets for the Leagues Cup match between FC Dallas and Inter Miami CF on Sunday night were going for as much as $850 on the secondary market.

Fans lined up more than two hours to enter Toyota Stadium, but couldn’t walk in until Messi’s Inter Miami CF side was in the building. They were late, so the fans baked in our balmy 106-degree temperatures.

Scores of hard-working hustlers lined the streets near the stadium selling knock-off Messi “kits” (jerseys). FC Dallas issued about 200 press credentials for the Leagues Cup round of 16 match.

Just under a capacity 20,000 squeezed in to watch Swift play soccer. That’s who Messi is; he’s Taylor Swift. With one small exception.

We can’t be entirely sure if he’s trying, because effort just may not be required here in the states.

No one who watches Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert ever wonders if she’s trying. It’s a three-hour show that features more than 40 songs, 0 hydration breaks, and less time to breathe.

Even if there is some lip syncing involved, the woman works like a Sherpa on Everest to appease her loyal fans who paid far too much money to watch her do anything.

Messi’s presence on a pitch generates a similar interest as Swift on a stage.

From the moment the game started on Sunday night, nearly all of the fans stood on their feet with their eyes, their brain, their fingers, their toes, and their phones, pointed and focused on No. 10.

Every time he touched the ball, everyone pressed “RECORD.”

At the 6-minute mark, some fans were lucky enough to capture his beautiful shot from 25-yards out that slipped narrowly between the post and the keeper.

Every single time he touched the ball his skill level, coordination, talent and intellect made him look like a Mozart on a field full of high school tuba players.

MLS is not high school, but Messi can make all of these players look like Plano East students.

The more you watched him on Sunday night, seldom did it look like he was trying. He stood around a lot, which was one of the common gripes about his final games with Paris Saint-Germain.

That’s what great players can do; sometimes they are so good they don’t have to try. And sometimes that is what great players also do, not try.

Because they don’t have to. Because they’re bored. Because they’ve done it all. Messi really doesn’t need to do anything.

He has achieved everything a soccer player can, so motivation may be sporadic. He has more money than a CPA can count.

He is one of the most popular people ever in his native Argentina.

He plays soccer because he can, and he doesn’t know what else to do.

When the ball came to his toes, however, he was Magic. He was Jordan. He was Elvis. He was Ohtani. He was Gretzky.

He was Pele.

Messi’s game-tying goal on a free kick at the 85-minute was the stuff that only a legend can do without effort. Messi drilled the shot into a sliver of a corner that did not look big enough for a soccer ball.

In that moment, Messi was the most beautiful player in the beautiful game.

“It’s not much to say. Everyone can see it. It’s obvious for him a free kick around there is like a penalty kick for another player,” FC Dallas coach Nico Martinez said after the game. “You have to pray the ball goes out of bounds.”

Thus answering the question, only God can stop Messi.

Messi scored once more, an easy shot on an actual penalty kick after regulation.

Miami won a fun game on penalty kicks, but the real winners on this night were the fans, FC Dallas, Major League Soccer, and Messi’s teammates.

In four games with Miami, he has seven goals, one assist, and has transformed a horrible team into a competitive one.

“To have players like him here will make our players better,” Martinez said. “You can see FC Dallas, today our players raised their level higher than other games this season.

“It’s not about these players aren’t good, it’s about playing more frequently against high players that make you get better.”

Messi’s success here in the states may be akin to a Steph Curry playing for UTA against Stephen F. Austin, it’s still fun to watch.

And, much like the fan who leaves the Taylor Swift concert happy, no one has left a Messi MLS match disappointed, even though none of us knows if he’s really trying.