What was once a fantasy is now a formality. An event that was once a dream is now, finally, a reality. Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player of all time, is heading to Inter Miami. After all this time, all of the rumors and leaks and speculation, Messi has arrived.
"On Monday, June 5, Jorge Messi, the player’s father and representative, informed Club President Joan Laporta of the player's decision to join Inter Miami, despite having been presented with a proposal from Barca in consideration of the desire of both FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi for him to once again wear Blaugrana," the Barca statement read.
The brief message also included a sarcastic dig at Messi's desire to play outside of Europe — something Messi admitted he wanted to do: "President Laporta understood and respected Messi's decision to want to compete in a league with fewer demands, further away from the spotlight and the pressure he has been subject to in recent years."
It's still a weird sentence to write, despite all of the buildup that came before it. Messi's MLS arrival always felt like a pipedream, one that only the most hopeful of American soccer fans truly believed in. For some time, it felt like Inter Miami and MLS found themselves in the middle ground, unable to compete with the allure of European competition, the money of the Middle East and the romanticism of a South American return.
In the end, MLS found itself as the perfect marriage of all three. With his move stateside, Messi instantly becomes an American sports icon, the second coming of David Beckham and, perhaps, even bigger. It's only right that it is Beckham's club that inevitably became the club to lure Messi, igniting a new era of MLS led by one of the game's biggest titans.
