Lionel Messi is the soccer god. His influence is changing the U.S., a sports powerhouse and somewhat cynical about soccer.
Messi, who joined Major League Soccer (MLS) Inter Miami in July, was selected as the "athlete of the year" by Time magazine.
Time announced on the 6th that it has selected Messi as the 2023 Player of the Year.
Messi is the first male soccer player to win the award. Since the U.S. is a world-class powerhouse in women's soccer, the entire U.S. women's soccer team that won the Women's World Cup in France was selected in 2019. However, it is all the more worth remembering because he is the first player to receive an award as an individual soccer player and a men's soccer event.
Earlier, Time selected Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees in the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) last year, Simone Biles, an Olympic gold medalist as a living legend of U.S. gymnastics in 2021, and LeBron James, an NBA superstar in 2020.
This year was different, and foreign Messi was awarded in recognition of his work in the United States and his sensational achievements.
After selecting Messi, Time said, "He did what was considered impossible when he signed with Inter Miami," adding, "That's what makes the United States a country of football."
Messi has lived a turbulent life in his soccer life for the past year.
At the Qatar World Cup this time last year, he overcame a shock come-from-behind loss of 1-2 in his first match against Saudi Arabia in order to clinch the World Cup, his long-cherished dream of winning six consecutive games. Messi also scored seven goals and received the Golden Ball, which is given to the MVP of the tournament. He is the first soccer player to lift the Golden Ball twice, following the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, when he was the runner-up.
In July, he decided to go to the U.S. for a new continent of soccer after a lot of love calls, and wore an Inter Miami uniform. Messi, who completed his two-year contract at the prestigious Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in France at the time, had a variety of options, including a offer to renew his PSG contract, a U-turn in his former team FC Barcelona, joining the prestigious Saudi Arabian Al Hilal armed with oil money, and a contract with Miami.
In the early days of the transfer market, reports poured out that Al Hilal would receive nearly 900 billion won.
In particular, AFP, a leading French news agency, caused a huge stir when it urgently reported on May 9 that Messi had signed a "blockbuster" contract with a Saudi club, citing an official familiar with the contract process. The person who AFP introduced as a soccer official at the time said, "Messi's contract is complete. From next season, Messi will play in the Saudi league." He added, "The size of the contract is huge. All I have to do is coordinate the details."
PSG effectively admitted to breaking up with Messi. A PSG official said, "If we were going to renew our contract with Messi, we would have done it earlier."
However, Messi's choice was to join Miami, not the Middle East. Miami, which is co-owner of senior star player David Beckham, offered various package deals in addition to his annual salary, guaranteeing an annual salary of 100 billion won (approx.
Compared to the Al Hilal offer, it is only one-sixth, but Messi said, "If I had seen the money, I would have gone to Saudi Arabia," signaling that there are many things he wants to achieve beyond money in the United States.
As soon as he joined the club, Messi brought tremendous soccer popularity to the American continent. Previously, Beckham, Thierry Henry, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic moved to the U.S. to promote soccer in the Americas, but his performance was far different from Messi's.
Messi did not just go to play at an appropriate level during his twilight years in soccer, which is why his fans became even more enthusiastic.
On July 22, when he made his debut, he went into the second half of the North and Central American League match against Mexican club Cruz Asul and scored the final shot of the theater free-kick in extra time to lead the 2-1 victory and present the "Messi effect" in a single stroke. He not only scored two goals and one assist against Atlanta United, which was his second game, but also was involved in the other goal, leading the 4-0 victory.
In the third game, he also scored multiple goals to help the team win 3-1 against Orlando City, and in the fourth game, he scored multiple goals, including a fantastic free-kick goal.
He scored a goal in the fifth game against the Philadelphia Union to lead Miami to the League of Cups final. He also scored in the League of Cups final against Nashville, giving Miami, the lowest-ranked team in MLS, the first championship since its foundation.
Through the first seven games, Messi erased Americans' looks away from him and made him enthusiastic. 스포츠토토
"People say that every time Messi scores a goal, Sergio Busquets passes, or Jordi Alba breaks through, it's like watching a movie," said Beckham, the owner of the club, who even drew his own mural in Miami. "You get emotional watching them play. Everything about their game is beautiful. Messi came and a lot of things happened. A lot of things have changed for us," he said, even admitting that Messi has changed the Miami club itself.
That wasn't the whole story.
Messi made a huge impact on the U.S. soccer market beyond soccer fields. "With Messi's joining, the number of spectators, ticket prices, merchandise sales and TV viewership all surged. He highly appreciated his impact on the U.S. soccer and sports community," Time said.
In September, about 50 days after Messi actually came to the U.S., Spain's "Mundo Deportivo" said, "Messi's madness continues. On the day Messi made his debut in Inter Miami, the number of new subscribers to Apple TV+'s MLS season pass exceeded 110,000."
Apple TV is selling a separate MLS package, and after observing the 50-day trend from Messi's debut in the League Cup match against Mexico's Cruz Asul, the number of new season pass subscribers has increased nearly 20 times from 6,143 to 110,000 since his debut.
MLS Season Pass costs 12.99 U.S. dollars per month, or 17,000 won (approximately 33,000 won) per season. Existing Apple TV+ subscribers can purchase the TV at 25 dollars per season. Non-subscribers have to pay 14.99 dollars per month and 29 dollars per season.
The amount is not cheap, but people bought season passes to watch Messi's debut. It was a huge hit thanks to Messi's effect.
Since no American sports star has ever had such an explosive marketing effect, Time also selected Messi, an Argentine, in consideration of such influence.
Messi ended his season with a match against Charlotte on October 31. Since his debut in the MLS, he has played a total of 14 matches, including seven matches in the League's Cup, six matches in the MLS, and one match in the Lamar Hunt Open Cup. Of course, Messi's appearance also gave American soccer an opportunity to reflect on itself. As many of the MLS stadiums are composed of artificial grass, critics say that the stadiums do not match Messi's soccer skills. This also deserves the "Messi effect."
"My first choice was to go back to Barcelona, but it was impossible. I tried to go back, but it didn't happen," Messi said in an interview published in Time. "It was also true that I considered entering the Saudi Arabian league. Both Saudi Arabia and the MLS were interesting options for me."
However, the final choice was the U.S. "It was very easy to adapt to the U.S. It's so nice now that I can't complain about anything," Messi said expressing satisfaction. Messi reportedly had assets to some extent even before joining the team, as he already had two buildings in Miami, which is close to South America.
Unlike the League's Cup championship, however, there were not many games that were played properly in MLS while traveling to and from Argentina for the A-match. Miami also failed to make the playoffs.
"The most important thing is to recover well physically and mentally, spend time with family and friends, and return with the same aspiration and special challenges as always," Messi said, promising next season. After Miami failed to advance to the playoffs, rumors of Messi's loan to FC Barcelona surfaced, but it turned out to be not true.
After coming to Miami, there was another sergeant.
In recognition of his contribution to leading Argentina to the top of the Qatar World Cup, he won the award at the World Football Individual Award "Ballon d'Or" held by the French Football magazine in October, increasing his record of winning the most awards ever to eight times.
After returning to Miami with the huge Ballon d'Or trophy, Messi attended the club's grand celebration. He clearly showed Americans what the Ballon d'Or trophy looks like.
In particular, Inter Miami club released a video of Messi visiting the academy's squad with his eighth Ballon d'Or trophy on the club's official social network service (SNS) on the 3rd of last month.
In the video, Messi visited the academy with the Ballon d'Or trophy in his case. The academy team welcomed the legend who won the eighth Ballon d'Or award with applause, and chants of "Messi, Messi" were heard everywhere.
Afterwards, Messi pulled out the Ballon d'Or trophy from the trophy case he placed on the tamele. It is the first Ballon d'Or trophy to be introduced in North America.
For Messi, the day he won his eighth Ballon d'Or was the birthday of Diego Maradona, another world-renowned soccer star proud of Argentina and a "genius" who led Argentina to the 1986 Mexico World Cup.
An interesting episode in American soccer was also introduced by Messi.
Last month, Sports Bible, a sports media outlet, released an interview with fellow Messi midfielder Edison Azkona, introducing, "There is a Messirul in Inter Miami."
According to Azkona's interview with Argentine media "Infobae," Messi is a rule to defend without hurting Messi during training. Messi is one of the key players in Inter Miami's offense, and he is a player that must be preserved.
"We all agreed that Messi should not get hurt," Azkona said. "He tries to stop Messi, but he defends with full caution." "I'm not saying that we allow him to pierce through us easily. It's just a rule to defend roughly to prevent Messi from getting hurt."
Messi's physical condition is very important to Inter Miami. He clearly showed the U.S. what the "God of soccer" is.
As soon as Messi came to the team, he led Inter Miami, which was "last in a decade," to win consecutive games, and also brought in teammates Alba and Busquets from Barcelona, making a remarkable contribution to the team's rebuilding.
Inter Miami players are in a situation where they have to train while keeping Messi's "Okce" as much as possible, the mental support and the captain who leads the team.
These mesh rules did not exist only in Inter Miami, but also in Barcelona.
He also operated Messi's rule in Barcelona, Spain's La Liga, where Messi spent more than 20 years. In 2020, Spain's leading media "Marca" quoted Jean-Clerc Todibo, a French national defender who was then a member of Barcelona and loaned to Schalke in the German Bundesliga, saying, "Barcelona defenders had to be as careful as possible."
"Messi should not have been hurt," Todibo said in an interview. "We defended him very carefully. I learned a lot from Messi and even took the ball a few times," he said.
In 2009, when he was playing with French legend Thierry Henry, Messi once performed "Dribble of Fury" at Barcelona's training ground. In an interview, Henri said, "Messi was fouled and fell in a mini soccer game in which players were divided into teams in 2009 when he was training in Barcelona," and added, "Messi got angry and approached the goalkeeper, asked for the ball, and scored a goal past all the players."
The rules of such a prestigious club Barcelona were also introduced in the new soccer continent due to Messi.
Messi's "American Life" that made the U.S. fall in love with soccer is probably just beginning.
Three years later, in the summer of 2026, the World Cup will be held jointly in three countries of North and Central America: the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and he said at first that he would not be able to play at the World Cup in the year when he turns 39, but now he has changed a bit. He is highly likely to participate as he is playing in the Latin American qualifiers regularly and is still showing off his rusty skills.
And until then, he is highly likely to play as a soccer evangelist for a new continent and the best soccer player in the world. Messi's last decision last summer is becoming a stroke of God.
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