Inter Miami opens camp this week, then embarks on 25,000-mile preseason world tour

It remains to be seen how many trophies Inter Miami wins this season, but one thing is for sure: Lionel Messi and his teammates, who now include Uruguayan star Luis Suarez, will be racking up more frequent flier miles than any team in Major League Soccer.

Even before Inter Miami opens the 2024 MLS season with a home game against Real Salt Lake on Feb. 21, the team will travel nearly 25,000 miles to play seven preseason matches in five countries.

MLS training camp opens this weekend and will be the first full preseason for Messi, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba, who joined Inter Miami last summer, and for Suarez, who signed a one-year contract with the club in late-December. It will also be the first full preseason for coach Tata Martino, who replaced Phil Neville last summer.

The team will have one week to prepare for its jam-packed world tour. Miami opens its preseason traveling show on Jan. 19 in San Salvador against the national team of El Salvador. Three days later, the team returns to the United States for a Jan. 22 game against FC Dallas at Cotton Bowl Stadium, the only preseason game Miami will play against an MLS opponent.

“This match against FC Dallas will provide us with a great test against MLS opposition ahead of our fifth season for Inter Miami,” said sporting director Chris Henderson. “We’re looking forward to making this our most memorable campaign yet.”

Next, the team heads to Saudi Arabia to play Al Hilal on Jan. 29 and Al Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo’s team, on Feb. 1. That game is being billed as “The Last Dance” as it may be the last time rivals Messi and Ronaldo face each other.

From there, Inter Miami flies to Hong Kong to play a Hong Kong All-Star team on Feb. 4 and from there on to Tokyo for a Feb. 7 game against Vissel Kobe. Miami returns home for its final preseason friendly Feb. 15 against Argentine club Newell’s Old Boys, which is the hometown team of Messi and Inter Miami coach Tata Martino.

“I am delighted to welcome my beloved Newell’s to our home here in Miami. It will be a special match due to everything Newell’s Old Boys means to me,” Martino said.

Martino made more appearances with Newell’s than any player in club history, and won titles there in 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1992. He coached the 2013 team to another title.

Messi left Newell’s youth ranks to join FC Barcelona after scoring more than 200 goals in six years.

Six days after the game against Newell’s, the 2024 MLS season begins with Inter Miami facing Real Salt Lake at 8 p.m at DRV PNK Stadium. It is the only game scheduled for that day, so all Apple TV MLS Season Pass subscribers will be focused on Messi and his teammates.

There will be immense pressure on Inter Miami to win early and make a deep run in the MLS Playoffs. Last year, Messi delivered plenty of summer drama and took the league by storm, scoring 11 goals over a 12-game unbeaten streak to help lead Miami to the Leagues Cup title and a U.S. Open semifinal victory.

Winning a treble – Leagues Cup, U.S. Open Cup, MLS Cup – seemed plausible at that time.

But Messi aggravated an upper leg injury that kept him out of six of the final eight games. Alba injured a hamstring and missed multiple games. Depleted and seemingly running out of gas, Inter Miami ended the season on a seven-game winless slide and failed to make the MLS playoffs.

Miami finished in 14th place in the Eastern Conference, second from last with a 9-18-7 record and 34 points. The previous year, without Messi and the other high-profile signees, Miami placed sixth and made the playoffs.

This year, the schedule will be even more busy than it was in 2023. In addition to 34 MLS regular season games, Inter Miami earned a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League, and is scheduled to play once again in the Leagues Cup and U.S. Open Cup. Also, the prestigious Copa America tournament will be held in the United States June 20 to July 14, so Messi and other national team players from South America and CONCACAF are expected to miss MLS games.

Will their legs hold up? Time will tell.