Lionel Messi’s Miami adventure will begin at what was once an MLS gravesite. Some 22 years ago, long before the GOAT decided to take his talents to South Beach, before he’ll arrive to lift an entire league and perhaps American soccer more broadly, that league was crumbling. It nearly folded in 2001. It survived, but its first Miami club, the Fusion, dissolved. The league’s future, if it even had one, looked bleak.
So when Messi debuts in MLS this summer, at Inter Miami’s stopgap home, on the same Fort Lauderdale land that housed the Fusion’s since-demolished Lockhart Stadium, his presence won’t just attract millions of eyeballs and international interest; it won’t only propel MLS toward a more prosperous future; it will be a prize for the league’s organic growth.