{"id":167437,"date":"2025-06-29T09:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T09:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/167437\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T09:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T09:12:16","slug":"lionel-messi-has-made-miami-americas-new-soccer-capital-will-it-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/167437\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi has made Miami America\u2019s new soccer capital. Will it last?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Scarface, Tony Montana is driving through Miami on a balmy summer night, top down, his car upholstered in understated tiger print.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe, I want what\u2019s coming to me,\u201d he says to his compadre, Manny.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what\u2019s coming to you?\u201d Montana gets asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world, Chico, and everything in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Club World Cup has come to Miami this summer. The World Cup is next. The One Year Out celebration held at the city\u2019s Perez Art Museum on June 11 made that feel real.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, we\u2019re more than qualified to host it, as we know,\u201d the Latin Grammy winner and Miami native Marc Anthony said. \u201cWe\u2019ve hosted from Super Bowls to Formula 1.\u201d Maybe the less said about last year\u2019s Copa America final<\/a>, the better.<\/p>\n

At a conference in Coral Gables, Nicolo Zini, a business executive for the host committee, talked about \u201creal momentum\u201d and the importance of the Club World Cup acting as a signpost that the World Cup is on its way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a minor selling point,\u201d Zini added. Miami did not have a game at the 1994 World Cup. \u201cThe stadium wasn\u2019t ready. It went to Orlando.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s Miami 2026 World Cup countdown clock is unveiled earlier this month (Ivan Apfel\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Anticipation is building and has been since Inter Miami persuaded Lionel Messi to play in MLS.<\/p>\n

Away from the Art Deco curves and sandy pavements of Miami Beach, the boxiness of Wynwood has provided a canvas for more than the pastel colours that made this city famous through the outfits of Don Johnson in Miami Vice. It is home to the world\u2019s first graffiti museum.<\/p>\n

Pedestrians on the sidewalk find themselves in the shadow of cherry-pickers, not palm trees. The pop and shake of spray paint cans alternates with the rat-a-tat-tat of spluttering exhausts from Ferraris and Lamborghinis.<\/p>\n

Messi looms large in this neighbourhood. He smiles down from murals, as he does outside the Fiorito in Little Haiti, a steakhouse named after the Buenos Aires barrio where Diego Maradona grew up. It\u2019s a place where some of the area\u2019s 58,000 Argentinians come for blood sausage, empanadas and a vacio-cut so good you order it for main and dessert.<\/p>\n

Framed on the wall are a pair of red and yellow cards signed by Hector Elizondo, the Argentine referee who sent off Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final. A Boca Juniors basketball game is on the TV. It is niche.<\/p>\n

Messi isn\u2019t everywhere in Miami. He plays and trains on the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale, where autograph hunters all the way from Tucuman wait on the corner for his Maybach to turn into the Florida Blue Training Center.<\/p>\n

This is a sprawling place and as such, you can ride around for hours without seeing Messi \u2014 apart from, every now and again, on towering freeway billboards where he competes for advertising space with injury lawyers, pharmaceuticals and air conditioning units.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need a car collection like the Miami Heat\u2019s legendary coach Pat Riley to get around the city, but you do need to drive. It is one big Scalextric track with rising, bending interchanges that look like albino anacondas surging out of the Everglades.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Eva Marie Uzcategui\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

F1\u2019s recent success here<\/a> makes sense. The number of cars is perhaps why the city\u2019s most famous pieces of architecture are the stacked garages, like the Herzog & de Meuron one on 111 Lincoln Road. It is why the Hard Rock Stadium has 26,718 parking spaces.<\/p>\n

You reach it via Dan Marino Boulevard and Don Shula Drive, a pair of greats in Miami Dolphins lore. It is a reminder that the other football remains America\u2019s Game.<\/p>\n

Shula\u2019s passing<\/a> was a big moment in Miami sports. On the way to the mixed zone at the Hard Rock, you pass the 72 Club, a hospitality experience named after the team Shula coached in 1972; the one and only team in NFL history to go an entire season undefeated.<\/p>\n

And yet, even as the Florida Panthers vied for and won the Stanley Cup during the group stage of FIFA president Gianni Infantino\u2019s new, expanded Club World Cup, fans turned out for the the competition in Miami.<\/p>\n

As much as half-empty stadiums were a focus of the coverage<\/a>, the teal-coloured 65,000-seater Hard Rock averaged crowds of 60,000 over the first fortnight of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Some of that was down to the magnetic Messi effect. It was no coincidence that FIFA chose Inter Miami to raise the curtain on the Club World Cup against Al Ahly.<\/p>\n

The Hard Rock record, however, was for the Bayern Munich-Boca Juniors game. That, in no small part, spoke to the aforementioned Argentine diaspora \u2014 the irrationality of the Boca fans<\/a> and their willingness to follow their team not only to Miami but, as their striker Miguel Merentiel said<\/a>, \u201cto the moon, even\u201d.<\/p>\n

It highlighted, as Real Madrid\u2013Al Hilal did too, that there is a market for football in Miami that isn\u2019t totally dependent on Messi.<\/p>\n

Madrid es Madrid, after all. The biggest club of all. And Americans love a winner. They love stars. And although predictable, it was striking nonetheless to see the pull Real Madrid has on Hispanic and Latino fans outside of Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cMiami is a city with Latin American passion that loves soccer and has recently had the privilege of enjoying the magic of Messi and company,\u201d Infantino said on the eve of the opening game. \u201cNot only that, it is also home to FIFA and Concacaf.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Boca Juniors fans congregate at Miami Beach before their Club World Cup match against Bayern Munich (Patricia de Melo Moreira\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Joan Didion, the great writer and journalist, once observed that Miami isn\u2019t an American city but a \u201ctropical capital,\u201d a \u201cLatin capital, a year or two away from a new government.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter where the World Cup is hosted, the government is \u2014 if not overthrown \u2014 then superseded, in a purely sporting sense, by FIFA.<\/p>\n

That won\u2019t happen in the U.S. but FIFA moved their legal and compliance division to Coral Gables because it makes logistical and geographic sense. After the Copa America, the Club World Cup and the men\u2019s World Cup, the next editions of the women\u2019s tournament will be held in Brazil and then the U.S..<\/p>\n

It feels like FIFA and Messi have made Miami the football capital of America \u2014 something that Seattle, LA, Atlanta and St. Louis will no doubt dispute, but the growth potential here is remarkable.<\/p>\n

Over half of the population in Miami-Dade is foreign-born, and Spanish is the main language spoken at home and on the street.<\/p>\n

Historically, that population was drawn from nearby Cuba, which is only 90 miles off the coast. Jorge Mas Canosa, the father of David Beckham\u2019s co-owners at Inter Miami, Jorge and Jose<\/a>, was one of many who exiled from Cuba after the rise of Fidel Castro.<\/p>\n

The received wisdom assumed Cubans were interested in baseball, track and field, and boxing: not soccer.<\/p>\n

When shown reconnaissance photos of football pitches in Cienfuegos in 1970, the U.S.\u2019s then-national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, demanded to see President Richard Nixon immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose soccer fields could mean war, Bob,\u201d he told an incredulous White House chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman, who in turn asked: \u201cHow come?\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCubans play baseball,\u201d Kissinger said. \u201cRussians play soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, Cuba sent a team to the 1938 World Cup, where they beat Romania in extra time and reached the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Messi celebrates at Hard Rock Stadium, where he also won Copa America (Photo: Michael Pimentel\/ISI Photos\/ISI Photos via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

More recently, Miami has become a haven for Latin America\u2019s affluent and aspirational. It is a city that teems with people for whom soccer is the primary sport.<\/p>\n

Miami United tried to tap into it by signing Adriano. Miami FC, a joint venture between media rights empresario Riccardo Silva and Milan legend Paolo Maldini, had a go and still continue in the USL Championship. Only Inter Miami, however, were granted a license as an MLS expansion team.<\/p>\n

The hispanic and Latino demography of South Florida means support is fragmented. Think about it. Not everyone is Argentine. Not everyone is a Messi fan.<\/p>\n

Some 240k in the Miami-Dade and Broward counties are Colombian, and they made their presence felt at the Hard Rock for last summer\u2019s Copa America final, which Messi\u2019s Argentina won in extra time. The two nations met again in a World Cup qualifier that preceded the start of the Club World Cup.<\/p>\n

But the roster Inter Miami have built is representative of the city and South America. Benjamin Cremaschi is born and raised in Miami, the son of Argentine parents. Telasco Segovia is Venezuelan, Luis Suarez and Maximiliano Falcon are Uruguayan, Leo Afonso is Brazilian, David Martinez is Paraguayan and Allen Obando is Ecuadorean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best thing about Miami as you have seen or will see,\u201d Inter Miami\u2019s president of business operations Xavi Asensi said at a conference held by the Argentine newspaper Ole, \u201cis that it is very near America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its proximity to more established football cultures and the conceptualisation of Inter Miami as a team not only of America but the Americas too is a benefit. Jorge Mas recently told ESPN he would like Inter Miami to one day compete in the Copa Libertadores.<\/p>\n

The brand, choice of name, colours and crest, and its association with Beckham has allowed Inter Miami to resonate far and wide.<\/p>\n

But if the pink Messi No 10 jersey is MLS\u2019s best seller and is seen in Hong Kong, Cape Town, Buenos Aires and London, it is, by Asensi\u2019s admission, because of Messi. His star power is not to be underestimated. Palermo pink would sell if Messi were in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Inter Miami,\u201d Asensi said. \u201cLeo is bigger than the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revenues have tripled since he joined. In April, Colombus Crew moved their regular-season home game against Inter Miami to the Cleveland Browns\u2019 stadium to meet demand for tickets. \u201cWherever we go, it\u2019s like The Rolling Stones,\u201d Asensi explained. Playing at the much bigger Hard Rock rather than Chase Stadium, their backyard in MLS, has not posed a challenge. Both group-stage games Inter Miami played there fetched crowds of 60k.<\/p>\n

It raises the question: why will Freedom Park, the new ground Inter Miami are building near Miami International Airport, have only a 25k capacity? It is, in fairness, a size in line with other MLS, soccer-first grounds in the U.S.. It perhaps also reflects a realism. Messi was 38 this week and while Jorge Mas wants him to retire at Inter Miami, that retirement is ever nearer.<\/p>\n

How long, if at all, will Messi carry on playing beyond next summer\u2019s World Cup? He has said, even during this Club World Cup, that these are his \u201cfinal games.\u201d The end is coming. Who then will buy Inter Miami jerseys when they can\u2019t put Messi 10 on the back? Who will watch them when he is in the executive box rather than on the pitch?<\/p>\n

The hope is that the Messi effect has a legacy. That the kids who have come to see him at Chase Stadium these past two and a half years become fans of the game, of Inter Miami in general and not just him. That the city, as Infantino desires, \u201cwrites its name in gold letters\u201d as major soccer destination.<\/p>\n

The world and everything in it has come to Miami. But, after Messi, after the World Cup, will it stay there?<\/p>\n

(Photos: Getty Images; design: Kelsea Petersen)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Scarface, Tony Montana is driving through Miami on a balmy summer night, top down, his car upholstered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1784,13038,7,13036,16108,49,48,3372,3373,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-167437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-fifa-club-world-cup","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-inter-miami-cf","12":"tag-mens-world-cup","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-football","15":"tag-premier-league","16":"tag-soccer","17":"tag-sports-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114765886012317259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}