Boos, thrashings and injuries: how Inter Miami’s world tour turned into a circus
Inter Miami were not far into their 23,000-mile, three-week preseason globetrotting tour when they started to hit bumps in the road. The star-studded roadshow featuring headliner Lionel Messi and his newest support act, Luis Suárez, was supposed to take the world by storm, from El Salvador to Saudi Arabia to Hong Kong, but the exercise has backfired. Several defeats and no-shows from the stars left spectators disgruntled, reputations diminished, and the team, as well as fans back home, unsure of how much they will get from their ageing legends once the MLS season starts.
As the tour reaches its last leg in Japan against Vissel Kobe on Wednesday, before returning to Miami for a game against Newells Old Boys, it will have witnessed boos for David Beckham, a Cristiano Ronaldo dropout, a 6-0 defeat and an almost surreal statement from the Hong Kong government expressing its “deep disappointment” at Messi’s absence.
As many predicted when the dates were released, tens of thousands of air miles on top of games and preseason training began to take a toll on the players. Messi picked up an injury in the first of the games in Saudi Arabia against Al Hilal, and his involvement dwindled from there.
During the most recent port of call in Hong Kong, where Inter Miami faced a vaguely named “Hong Kong Team”, there were boos as franchise owner Beckham addressed the crowd after the game. Fans, and, apparently, the government, had been expecting to see Messi. There was initial disappointment when he was listed only as a substitute but still hope he would make an appearance. He didn’t.
Beckham was one of numerous targets for boos as fans vented their disappointment at the personalities they had arrived to adore, with some supporters asking
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