Lionel Messi playing for Inter Miami! Can 2023 get much better for South Florida? | Habib

The difference between the tiny boy that Lionel Messi was, and the giant of an athlete Lionel Messi is, was daily growth hormone injections.

They were costly, but they soon alleviated doctors’ fears that young Leo would never grow to normal size. Never grow to be recognized as the greatest soccer player in the world and, in the eyes of many, the greatest player ever.

South Florida woke up Wednesday to reports that this legend is one of its own. That Messi had decided to join David Beckham-owned Inter Miami, in a sense coming home, since he already owns a place in South Florida. By the afternoon, any remaining suspense was ended by the man himself. In an interview with Mundo Deportivo, Messi said, "I'm going to Miami." There are still details to be worked out, he added, but they are just that, details. The big decision is the biggest in Major League Soccer's history.

Apparently, the sports gods have decided that it’s not enough that the Miami Heat and Florida Panthers are within striking distance of league championships this week and the magic dust spread on the NCAA Tournament shows no signs of wearing off. No. Whatever dream world we’re living in has now even graced the local MLS, which had done little to deserve such good fortune, but what the hell?

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MLS, Apple, Adidas and others are banking on it. The league and its heavy-hitting partners are teaming to lure this magician, laying millions on the line to trump a reported half-billion offer from Al-Hilal. The Miami Herald reported Inter Miami's 2½-year package has a total value of $125 million to $150 million. It’s a win-win situation if there ever was one. In the likelihood you’ve never heard of it, Al-Hilal is a club in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom that just this week purchased the golf world and seems to have its sights on purchasing the sports world.

Turns out the conversion rate from blood money to real dollars depends on who’s calculating, and as soon as Messi started counting with his toes, his glorious feet told him no mas.

Lionel Messi arriving is a bit like when Pelé came

Make no mistake: This isn’t just a win for Inter Miami. MLS has a hand in this deal, just as it did when it imported Beckham from England, except this acquisition parallels closer to Pelé joining the New York Cosmos in 1970. That’s in terms of worldview (added legitimacy for MLS) and within the United States (finishing the job Pelé started for the sport, with World Cup 2026 around the corner, including in Miami).

Soccer already has a far bigger foothold in the United States than outsiders care to admit, but nothing compared to what Messi and a strong U.S. showing in the World Cup would accomplish. MLS Commissioner Don Garber was frank while meeting with sports editors in April about the impact Messi could have.

“We will work very hard with Miami, who is the team that is hoping to be able to sign him, to come up with a program for him that will allow him to establish a legacy that I think could be unprecedented globally, let alone unprecedented here in our country because I think of him as someone who crosses so many barriers that he can be bigger than any athlete of any sport that has ever played here in the United States,” Garber said.

Messi is 35. His first choice was to return to Barcelona, the club he’ll forever be associated with, but financial constraints limited what the Spanish club could do. South Florida has long been his getaway spot and Beckham is said to have been courting him for ages, so for the Messi camp, it makes sense.

"If it wasn’t going to work out in Barcelona, I wanted to leave Europe, take the focus away from myself and focus more on my family,“ Messi said.

It certainly makes sense in the eyes of MLS’ partners such as Adidas and Apple, which just signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal to televise the majority of MLS matches on Apple TV. Want to see Messi tear it up on American soil? Better get the MLS package.

Speaking of added interest, Inter Miami has been coy about its ticket policy, holding back on offering late-season single-match tickets in what could be seen as shrewd business in preparation for Messi’s arrival. Capacity at the team’s temporary home, DRV PINK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, is just 18,000, but the Herald reported that the team will add 2,500 to 3,000 seats. It would make business sense to hold some matches at Hard Rock Stadium, which Messi notably helped pack for a 2017 match featuring Barcelona and rival Real Madrid.

Messi, of course, would be a fit on any MLS team. But Miami’s?

“We have been pretty effective at coming up with clever ways to sign players for our clubs in the right market,” Garber said.

Messi has won the Ballon d’Or as the world’s best player seven times. When he led Argentina to a World Cup championship last year, it eliminated the only possible knock critics held against him (wrongfully so, by the way). Combining an ability to score impossible goals and make teammates better with improbable feeds, Messi is forever tilting the odds. One man against two defenders? Three? It matters not.

Messi will look snazzy in Miami pink

Whenever the deal is finalized, attention will turn to Messi's debut. The Herald said July 21, a Nations Cup match vs. Mexico's Cruz Azul, is the target for Messi to debut in Inter Miami pink (for the uninformed, hot Miami pink and black are the team’s snazzy colors).

Help is needed ASAP. At 5-11, Inter Miami is in last place in the Eastern Conference and in tatters, having just fired coach Phil Neville.

That’s familiar territory for a club that more often than not has erred on the side of dysfunction, including running afoul of MLS rules in its first major player acquisition, Blaise Matuidi, a few years ago. If you thought such circumvention would give the team a leg up, think again. In its history, Inter Miami has played 107 matches, won 38, been shut out 38 times and finished with no more than one goal on 73 occasions. That’s a staggering 68.2% of the time.

Speaking of zero, that’s how much soccer knowledge is required to picture the welcome opposing defenders will have for Messi. Even he can’t take on 11 by himself, so adding his buddy, Sergio Busquets, would be a first step, but only one step. Perhaps ex-Argentina coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino will be hired, although Inter Miami would be wise to take a hard look at Ray Hudson, the ex-Miami Fusion coach, popular TV analyst and unabashed Messi supporter.

“A new day???” Hudson tweeted Wednesday. “If true, It’s a new world! #Messi (with the goat emoji) to my hometown, beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida, playing for @InterMiamiCF.”

In 2010, Messi was an emerging world star, just 22, as he prepared for the World Cup in South Africa. The Argentines bowed out with a 4-0 shellacking by Germany in the quarterfinals. Entering the tournament, Clive Toye, who orchestrated Pelé’s move to America, laid out for The Post his map for Messi to achieve greatness.

"To find his place among the gods, Messi needs to thread through completely impenetrable defenses a few times, score a few from impossible angles, and a few more while being gang-tackled by desperate defenders. All with total composure and complete élan,” Toye said.

All these years later, check, check, check.

All these years later, what wasn’t even a dream now is a dream coming true.

What a year, 2023.

Sports reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com and followed on Twitter @gunnerhal.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Inter Miami landing Lionel Messi puts 2023 in new stratosphere