David Beckham, the interview: Miami, Messi, Manchester United – and more
“This will be up there with the biggest moves in American sporting history.”
The words of David Beckham on signing Lionel Messi to the club he co-owns. Where some would seek to temper expectations, Beckham chooses to amplify them.
“And we’re talking about the biggest sporting market in the world. Bringing Leo Messi to Inter Miami, to MLS, the year after he wins the World Cup, to a team that is three years old… it’s a hell of an achievement.”
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An achievement comparable to those the former England captain enjoyed as a footballer? “I never thought I would have the same feeling as an owner as I had when I was a player,” Beckham says of the moment he got the news Messi had chosen to join Miami. “When I got the phone call, I had the feeling I had when I walked out at Old Trafford or Wembley. I was like, ‘We’ve just beaten all competition to sign the greatest player to ever play our game’.”
It is hard to overstate the magnitude of this moment for Inter Miami, Major League Soccer and the U.S. more broadly — especially as it prepares to co-host the 2026 men’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico — and impossible to predict the effect Messi could have in the years ahead. Scoring a stoppage-time winner on his debut last week — 16 years to the day Beckham made his MLS debut — and following that up with two goals and two assists in a 4-0 win in his second game four days later certainly qualifies as a decent start.
Messi signed a deal that runs until winter 2025, worth about $50million-$60million (£39m-47m) annually, but his arrival is the culmination of a decade-long pursuit which Miami hope will prove priceless. That process was led by Beckham in conjunction with his Inter Miami partners, brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, the trio
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