The surroundings of the Inter Miami stadium were a party this Sunday to the sound of drums, songs and loudspeaker music, led by excited fans of the MLS club and especially the Argentine star Lionel Messi, whose presentation was suspended for a few hours due to of a thunderstorm.
Before the downpours and thunder fell, the parking lots outside the DRV PNK Stadium, in Fort Lauderdale (about 35 km north of Miami), gathered hundreds of excited people.
Many of them danced to the sound of drums and songs, others fired flares or held signs in honor of the player hours before the official presentation of the Albiceleste captain began and under inclement heat.
Virtually everyone celebrated the conviction that the arrival of the current world champion with Argentina will be the key for the Major League Soccer (MLS) club to finally reach the top of the table and reap important victories.
“I think it’s going to get better, we’re talking about the best player in the world,” Cuban Dayan Serrano, a follower of Messi since the footballer started at FC Barcelona, told EFE Agency and whose fanaticism is confirmed by a tattoo of the Argentine on his leg.
Anchored in the last position of the Eastern Conference, Inter Miami is recording what is perhaps the worst season in its short history in MLS (it debuted in March 2020), and the club’s supporters are clear that even the league at The end of the season is a very distant goal for this year, even with Messi.
“I think that next season is when we are really going to see the improvements,” said Serrano, who highlighted not only the Argentine’s differential advantage but also the one that will grant another brand new signing, such as the Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets, whose signing the club confirmed this same Sunday.
After his departure from the French PSG, Messi rejected a million-dollar offer from the Arab league and chose to start his new professional career in the American league at the hands of the South Florida club, owned by the businessman of Cuban origin Jorge Mas and the former English soccer player David Beckham.
The Argentine will be linked to the club for the next two and a half years, during which time he will receive a salary of up to 150 million dollars, apart from other income derived from royalties from Apple, which has the rights to broadcast the matches of the MLS, as reported by US sports media.
After making his career in Europe, the winner of seven Ballon d’Or falls to a different league, more physical and less tactical, however his followers believe that he will adapt without problems.
“It’s another league, but he’s the soccer star, he adapts to everything, he’s going to throw the team on his shoulders and everyone is going to accommodate him to move the team forward,” Honduran Jeffry González predicted in statements to EFE , who approached the stadium with his wife and two daughters from early hours with their tickets in hand.
With a capacity of 22,000 spectators, increased from 19,000, the DRV PNK Stadium has been hanging the “sold out” sign for Messi’s presentation ceremony for weeks and resale tickets have reached four-digit figures.
Meanwhile, Messi and his family have begun to live in their new city, as evidenced by the images that have circulated profusely on social networks and in which he appears with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their three children shopping at a popular chain. of Florida supermarkets.
“The Unveil”, whose start was suspended due to a powerful electrical storm, has scheduled performances by singers Camilo and Ozuna, as well as Tiago PZK and Paulo Londra, and at the end the entrance to the center of the Argentine stadium, for the first time dressed in the club’s official clothing, characteristically pink.
