Skip to main content

Money and profile, sure, but what does Lionel Messi bring to Miami on the pitch? | Jonathan Wilson

With less gifted players around him, Inter’s defence-shy superstar could struggle with the physicality of MLS

Inter Miami are now the fifth most-followed American sports franchise on Instagram, their numbers leaping from 900,000 to almost nine million. They are having to expand their stadium and tickets for their remaining home games this season are going for $350. All this for a team that went into the weekend bottom of the Eastern Conference. Lionel Messi has already had an enormous impact on his new club. As the MLS commissioner, Don Garber, said, Messi’s move to the United States is a “massive financial opportunity”.

It’s easy to be seduced by this. It’s easy to be relieved that the greatest player of his generation will not be among those trading their integrity for a sackload of Saudi cash (although given Messi is an ambassador for Visit Saudi, that ship has perhaps already sailed). It’s easy to regard Messi as some sort of missionary, a modern-day Pelé, delivering football to the heathen.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/YHAsqoO
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Green Planet review – David Attenborough’s gobsmacking, awe-inspiring return

From glowing bioluminescent fungus to 7,000 different camera set-ups for ants, the veteran broadcaster’s miraculous profile of plant life will have you gasping in astonishment so often you’ll be breathless One of the televisual joys I most remember from childhood was when a programme – often a nature documentary, but sometimes a few seconds on Sesame Street or a Tomorrow’s World demonstration of new technology – would show a flower unfolding with time-lapse photography. It was always sudden, always fleeting, and of course there weren’t even any recording buttons – let alone live pausing and rewinding facilities – that you could quickly press in order to capture and relive the delight. It was ever ephemeral, and I could never get enough. Until now, with the latest gift from David Attenborough and his endlessly patient and dedicated team of camera operators (to whom a now traditional 10-minute coda is again devoted), The Green Planet (BBC One). The new five-part series presented by the...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Rico Lewis helped harden up Manchester City’s treble challenge | Jamie Jackson

Guardiola believes advent of the teenage talent sowed seeds of change that turned his side into champions again Mid-January, the Etihad Campus. Before Tottenham’s visit a discontented Pep Guardiola is addressing a Manchester City team meeting that includes Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Ederson. The champions are in second place, eight points behind Arsenal, each having played 18 games. Performances have dipped and so has the attitude of his players. The final match before the World Cup was a 2-1 home defeat by Brentford . Since the tournament, City have beaten Leeds and Chelsea, drawn with Everton and lost their previous outing , 2-1 at Manchester United. Seven points from 15 is not championship-defending form and, when being knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Southampton is factored in, Guardiola can see City’s campaign derailing. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/h8WjbMX
Post a Comment
Read more

Wandsworth escape accused says it was ‘foolish’ to jail him with his ‘skill set’

Daniel Khalife, 23, says he absconded because he was ‘terrified’ of being locked up with dangerous offenders A former British soldier has told a jury he did not hand himself in after he escaped from prison because he was “finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was” to imprison someone with his “skill set”. Daniel Khalife, 23, told the court he absconded from Wandsworth prison while on remand because he was “terrified” of being locked up with “serious sex offenders” and “terrorists” who wanted to kill him, and that he did not think his imprisonment would be in the public interest. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/vRZHkaw
Post a Comment
Read more