Lionel Messi’s lucrative Inter Miami deal will see the football legend change the financial game for sports stars

It is one of the biggest bets in sports history, for both sides.

Inter Miami and the American Major Soccer League have agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years to lure a 36-year-old into a competition that has struggled to break into evening newscasts across the United States.

Certainly, the man they are pursuing is considered by many to be the greatest footballer of all time.

Lionel Messi is a global superstar. He is the second most followed person on Instagram with nearly 500 million followers.

The only person ahead of him is his most valuable rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, with almost 600 million.

Even before his first game in Miami last weekend, Messi mania had gripped the city.

Colorful murals depicting Argentina’s number 10 have been installed around the city, while local restaurants have named menu items in his honor.

But Major League Soccer did everything it could to capitalize on its new superstar signing, starting with a huge party to introduce him as the newest member of the team.

Creating buzz certainly paid off, with 21,000 fans packing into Inter Miami’s stadium in Fort Lauderdale to see if Messi could reinvigorate a team that has languished throughout 2022.

There were only five days between the official announcement that Messi has joined Inter Miami and his first match for the club.

And yet the crowd was covered in official pink jerseys bearing his name. It was obvious that the investment was already paying off.

Laura Machargo and her 11-year-old son, Eduardo, were at the game, along with thousands of other young fans.

“We live here in South Florida. He’s a big fan, a big Messi fan,” she said.

In front of an excited crowd — including two other GOATs, Serena Williams and LeBron James — Messi delivered.

An iconic free kick gave his new team victory and restored confidence to those who bet that Messi would finally propel soccer to the center of American sporting discourse.

Messi’s Unprecedented Contract and Miami’s Assets

Lionel Messi had options.

He may be 36, but he’s still playing at a ridiculously high level.

He has scored over 800 career goals for club and country since making his debut in 2004 at the age of 17.

He has won the Ballon d’Or seven times, football’s highest individual award given annually to the world’s best player.

He has played more World Cup minutes than anyone in history and led Argentina to victory last year in Qatar.

After 17 seasons at FC Barcelona, ​​he terminated his contract in 2021 and signed a two-year deal with French club Paris Saint-Germain.

Since then, he has received offers from his former club as well as Saudi Arabia, which reportedly paid Messi $1.6 billion ($2.4 billion) over three years.

But Miami has managed to offer a more attractive package. Part of its appeal is certainly the financial benefits.

Messi is believed to receive a share of Apple’s revenue of its exclusive streaming of Major League Soccer (MLS), in what industry experts have described as an “unprecedented” deal.

The GOAT’s arrival at Inter Miami has already seen ticket prices jump by up to 500 percent and MLS Season Pass subscribers surpass 1 millionand the numbers are expected to increase.

The contract would also include a profit-sharing agreement with Adidas, the league’s official sponsor.

Adam Elder said some people are concerned the league is betting big on a man who may no longer be at the top of his game.

“The only people who seem to be against it are the die-hard fans who see Messi as a validation of the old stereotypes of the league and American football, which they think they’ve outgrown, as if it were a retirement home for aging stars. And here comes this aging midfielder of the biggest aging soccer star in the world for a record sum,” he said.

But he believes that given Messi’s ability to attract huge amounts of attention, he is worth the investment.

“To me, it seems like a win-win situation. I don’t see how this could fail for anyone,” he said.

But lifestyle and location are also seen as key elements in luring Messi to Miami.

Messi and his family have already purchased properties in the area, including building plots. $5 million in 2019 for an apartment in the Porsche Design tower.

He then purchased an even larger condo for US$7.3 million in 2021.

Florida has a huge Hispanic community, representing about a quarter of the population.

There is a particularly strong Argentine diaspora in Miami and they are delighted with the arrival of one of the country’s favorite sons.

Local business groups are also excited about the effects Messi’s arrival could have on the local economy.

“This is obviously a global brand coming to the capital of Latin America…so for us it’s a major deal,” said David Coddington of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance.

“Fort Lauderdale International Airport has a lot of direct flights to Latin America, Central America and South America, so it’s a lot easier for fans to come here than to go to Europe.”

Another factor that worked in Florida’s favor could be the lack of an income tax. Messi will keep more of his massive salary than he would have been able to elsewhere.

And if he ever gets homesick, it takes less than 9 hours to fly from Miami to Buenos Aires.

But Inter Miami also had another major factor working in its favor: it was there, in the stands, to watch Lionel Messi in his first game.

Replicating the Beckham model

What Inter Miami has going for it that other teams struggle to match is serious star potential.

For starters, the club’s chairman is David Beckham, former Manchester United star, England captain, husband of Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham and cultural icon.

Beckham shocked the football world in January 2007 when he announced at the age of 31 that he was leaving one of the world’s biggest football clubs, Real Madrid, to start playing on the American west coast for the LA Galaxy.

Author Adam Elder, who has followed the tribulations of soccer in the United States over the past few decades and wrote New Kids in the World Cup, says it was a pivotal moment for the sport.

“Even though the game had fans, sportswriters hated it. Their editors hated it. TV presenters couldn’t stand it,” he said.

“It was a cheap joke, a cheap punchline.”

Soccer has struggled to generate a fan base in the United States, with attendance and viewership numbers far below those of mainstream American sports like football, basketball and baseball.

Beckham has brought enormous attention to the game and has been able to carve out a lucrative financial path that Messi now appears to be following.

At first glance, Beckham takes 70% pay cut to join LA Galaxyfrom US$20 million per season to US$6.5 million.

But his contract also entitled him to a share of the game’s revenue, which would have earned him a salary of US$225 million over the five years he played.

Perhaps the most lucrative contractual perk was the right to purchase an expansion team from the league for a fixed price of US$25 million.

Beckham exercised this right the year after his retirement from football in 2014.

With partners, he created the club that would become Inter Miami and eventually joined the league in 2020.

Although the club has not achieved great success on the field, its value has steadily increased to around US$600 millionThe arrival of Messi is expected to push that amount beyond $1 billion.

Messi’s contract will not perfectly replicate Beckham’s model.

He was offered a minority stake in Inter Miami rather than the right to buy a new team, but that could prove very lucrative.

Co-owner of Inter-Miami Jorge Mas told CNBC this month that he expected revenue to “double” with Messi on board.

Messi has conquered almost every conceivable footballing summit. The question is whether he can now conquer America.