Messi’s first season with Inter Miami & MLS was massive success. But also far from perfect | Opinion

Inter Miami and Major League Soccer got exactly what it paid for and should have expected from Lionel Messi in Year 1 of his seismic arrival in America.

It has not been perfect or with a storybook ending, as we’ll get to, but it’s been a massive success in the overall.

Instantly, Miami because the biggest team in MLS if not the best, and the league enjoyed newfound stature and attention (and TV ratings, and ticket sales, and social media clout, and...) simply because the great Messi had blessed it with his presence.

This is not less than an international deity in the world’s biggest sport. Miami had seen nothing like it since Pope John Paul II visited in 1987 in the only papal visit here and led Mass for 230,000 worshipers. If that’s blasphemy, so be it. Messi invites all manner of hyperbole, and idolatry, too.

Inter Miami fans were cheering an awful team before his arrival, one that had won only five of 22 MLS games this season. The franchise in its fourth season, despite the glamour of David Beckham’s involvement, had been a big disappointment.

Then overnight those same fans were at the center of the futbol universe, envied by all.

Messi did that. Gave us that feeling.

Suddenly soccer fans in South Florida were Dolphins fans as the Dan Marino era began breaking NFL records, or Heat fans when LeBron James came to town.

Inter Miami had done the unimaginable, hit the biggest Powerball ever.

And the exclamation came in his very first game, in a Leagues Cup home match vs. Mexican club Cruz Azul on July 21, when on the last play his preternatural left foot curled a free kick into the upper left corner of the net for the winning goal -- as if scripted or divinely preordained.

Three months later, “Messi playing for Inter Miami” remain five words that defy belief.

And we have him for at least another year in 2024, for a full season this time.

With Messi leading, Inter Miami had a 12-game unbeaten streak and won the Leagues Cup tournament for the club’s first trophy. They nearly won a second one, reaching the final of the U.S. Open Cup tournament before losing.

This was no fairy tale, though.

Messi showed the greatness we expected but also something we maybe did not:

The fallibility. The age. And the allegiance to another team far closer to his history and his heart, the Argentine national team.

He is 36, the career’s winter in this young man’s game. He is human. He gets injured. He needs rest. And he had World Cup qualifying matches calling him to serve Argentina in the buildup to the 2026 World Cup.

With Leagues Cup, U.S. Open Cup and MLS, Miami played 19 matches in his first 2 1/2 months here, a lot, a grind. He played too much, in retrospect.

He aggravated a hamstring injury in early September while with Argentina. It caused him to miss five of Miami’s most recent six MLS matches,which in turned caused Miami to fall short of qualifying for the playoffs — a huge negative for MLS.

“When we needed the team to be the healthiest is when we were the most injured and tired,” said coach Tata Martino, surely with Messi at the forefront of his mind. “This is the reality, not an excuse.”

An Inter Miami game at Chicago had moved to and sold out Soldier Field in anticipation of Messi playing. He did not. Understandably, fans who bought tickets were disappointed, as were fans in Miami for games he missed here.

Dear fans, no conspiracy theory here. Players who are 36 and nursing a tender hamstring sometimes miss a game. Fans don’t get to sue a team because their team loses or their favorite player sits out. No refunds, sorry. You bought a ticket to see Messi and he was out injured or maybe away with his national team? Them’s the breaks. Welcome to sports.

One more reality fans are not happy about and must deal with: Inter Miami’s massive hike in ticket prices announced for 2024, thoroughly unsurprising, along with the rote outcry including a threatened boycott by the fan group La Familia.

The team’s cheapest season ticket in 2023 was $485, or $28.50 per game for 17 home games. The same seat in 2024 will cost $884, or $52 per game. There was zero chance Messi’s first full season in MLS would not be more expensive to watch. Having said that, the hike is steeper than I’d like, and the club must be careful not lose the goodwill of fans that it will need when Messi is gone.

Miami has two meaningless MLS matches left, Oct. 18 at home and Oct. 21 away, both vs. Charlotte. Messi will miss the home finale because he will be with Argentina in a World Cup qualifier vs. Peru. He’s unlikely to play in the regular-season finale, either.

Had this been a fairy tale, the man would have defied age to remain injury-free, never missed a game and starred for Argentina while also leading his new American team not only to the playoffs but triumphantly to the MLS Cup championship. (And scored the winning goal, of course!)

We must settle for reality, but that reality even unadorned is sublime. It is worth enjoying, appreciating and celebrating because those surreal words that are our unexpected gift — “Messi playing for Inter Miami” — will be a memory too soon.