What’s real isn’t always obvious or easily discernible in sports. We saw that Sunday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
If you stick a boxing ring on a football field, and put 44-year-old retired Floyd Mayweather inside it to fight a YouTube star turned made-up fighter named Logan Paul ... is it a boxing match?
If there are no judges scoring it and no winner declared in what was a farce of an exhibition?
They sold tickets and ESPN covered it, so it must have actually happened. It was as real as “The Bachelorette” and the Kardashians and TikTok celebrity.
Something else happened in Miami sports within the past few days, although it didn’t get as much a attention as Jake Paul (Logan’s brother) snatching the hat off Money Mayweather’s head at a prefight event.
It seems Lionel Messi is going to play for Inter Miami.
Is it real? Will it actually happen?
Rumor and speculation tend to transmogrify into reported news when it comes to soccer and the European and South American press. Is it legit? Or is it the National Enquirer reporting that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was assassinated by a hooker?
If it’s true — Messi to Miami — it would be the most exciting sports news down here since LeBron James took his talents to South Beach in 2010. Messi would arguably be the biggest star in his sport to ever suit up for a South Florida team.
A Catalan-based Spanish daily called Sport, a legitimate media outlet, first reported that Messi, the brilliant Argentine forward, is negotiating a new deal to remain with his La Liga club team FC Barcelona beyond his retirement — including a two-year Major League Soccer swansong in Miami.
Messi told Spanish TV station La Sexta last week: “I would like to play in the United States and experience life and the league there, but ultimately come back to Barcelona in some capacity.”
In April, Messi spent $7.3 million to buy the entire ninth floor of a luxury condo in Sunny Isles Beach, just north of Miami Beach.
The reported 10-year, $293 million deal would have Messi playing two more years with Barcelona and then two seasons with Inter Miami (in 2023 and ‘24) before finishing his contract in an off-field role as Barca’s global ambassador.
Miami would get him at ages 36 and 37 for his final two years as an active player, if the report proves true.
He would clearly be past his prime.
Clearly, it wouldn’t matter.
Messi even past his prime would be a transformational force in MLS. Beyond that, his arrival would electrify diverse South Florida and an Inter Miami franchise that dearly needs the jolt.
He would be the most important import, the biggest star, in MLS history.
He would be exactly what David Beckham needs — desperately needs, if we’re being honest.
Beckham, part-owner and face of Miami’s second-year MLS club, has had a nightmarish franchise launch, born into a pandemic and displaced to begin in Fort Lauderdale because his Miami stadium wouldn’t be ready. He already is on his second head coach and second sporting director (general manager). His team has won only nine of its first 32 games, losing 18 and tying five.
Worse, Inter Miami just got socked with an MLS-record $2 million fine for violations of salary budget and roster regulations. For perspective, the previous record league fine to any club was $150,000. In addition, Miami will incur a reduction of allocation money during the two (2022-23) seasons that amounts to a 12 percent cut. And principal owner Jorge Mas was given a $250,000 personal fine.
Unequivocally, Beckham, for all his magnetic cache’ and impeccable international brand, has overseen a massive failure with Inter Miami early on.
Messi would change all of that.
But will it happen? Can Beckham pull it off?
Messi-to-Miami is a report that demands more and invites skepticism. For one, the report indicates Messi would be paid $73 million per year for his two seasons in Miami. The highest-paid MLS player in 2021, Carlos Vela of Los Angeles FC, earns $6.3 million. Gonzala Higuain is Miami’s best-paid player at $5.8 million.
Now a Miami team under intense scrutiny for past salary shenanigans has to find $73 million a year for Messi? With a salary cap reduced by 12 percent because of said past shenanigans?
Hey, some guy with an 0-1 boxing record and famous only for being famous on YouTube just fought Floyd Mayweather.
If that can happen, Lionel Messi playing in Miami can, too.
