Revealed丨Four years of courtship, Miami finally got Messi
On July 15, major league team Miami International officially announced that Argentine superstar Lionel Messi joined the team, and the two sides signed a contract until the end of 2025, and according to media reports, the contract contains another one-year optional extension clause. On the evening of July 16, local time, at a ceremony after a thunderstorm, Messi officially appeared at the home of Miami International. Messi is still wearing the number 10 shirt, but the direction he is about to shine in has been replaced by the former "football desert" - the United States.
To this day, public opinion has gradually accepted the reality that Messi, who is still in excellent form, left the United States, but the shock and surprise have never dissipated: Europe is the center of football in the conventional perception of fans, and only standing here can it be considered to conquer football. Miami International, the bottom team in the Big League East, is lucky enough to get the star at the top of the football pyramid. Give more? The Riyadh Crescent gives no more. Signboard ringing? The history of the club, which is only 5 years old, is not even filled with a blank slate.
Winning the battle against the Golden Dollar Saudi Arabia, the confidence and confidence of the major league have swelled unprecedentedly. Messi's football migration has made the optimism embraced by American culture as an ideology spread around the world like a virus, which is a "do what you want, can do anything" mood, behind the joint promotion of the major leagues, a number of super business giants and chairman and founder David Beckham, but also a four-year-long star-picking premeditation. Internacional Miami made the blitz of Saudi football invisible with a patient and protracted battle, and the mastermind behind it was the Cuban-American billionaire Jorge Maas, the co-owner of the club that had not been noticed by the football world before.
Before Messi officially joined, Miami International's die-hard group had painted a large banner for the brightest football star on the Azure planet: "Welcome to Vice City." "At first glance, it's heart-wrenching. But in the light of evergreen video games like Grand Theft Auto, this pejorative synonym that truthfully sums up the American resort has become synonymous with neutral Miami, and locals are happy to call themselves so.
U.S. journalist Bardock called Miami "the world's headquarters in exile, a 'hotbed,' a longing home, full of 'future governments' who all think they will take power next week." One of them was Jorge Mas Cassano, who came into exile from Cuba in 1959 and became the most influential political broker in the region by virtue of his label of "persecuted by the Castro regime", and three years later his son Jorge Maas was born, and naturally inherited the political ideas and bloodstained wealth of his father's generation.
Jorge Maas, 60 (let's say 61), and his brother Jose Maas co-run South Florida-based Maas Technologies, which specializes in energy infrastructure and engineering and is a Fortune 400 company. Maas is of Cuban descent, but he has an American heart, or more precisely, a Miami heart. He often jokes with friends that he is always selling the city of Miami, using demagogic language to portray it as a gateway to the world, a city of energy and passion, with hard work as its label and diversity as its undertone. Since joining Miami International in 2017, Maas has spared no effort to make the team a showcase for what he calls the spirit of the city.
Propaganda must not be empty with slogans, but also symbols. So in mid-September 2019, a private jet carrying Jorge Maas, David Beckham, Jr.'s best friend David Gardner and then-Miami International director Paul MacDonald landed in Barcelona, disembarked and went straight to the hotel, entered a suite through a private passage, and a few minutes later, Messi's father, Jorge Messi, entered the room.
A courtship of Messi began, and four years later, the melon was ripe, and it became the most important deal in the history of the major leagues. According to Athletics.com, it was a conversational meeting that focused on the description of the big picture, called "Pie Pie" in the vernacular, the kind of self-introduction that let Jorge Messi know who you are, not some commercial offer. Messi was revealed early in the morning that he had the intention to end his career in the United States, but the scandal at that time was New York City, a subsidiary of City Football Group. Messi Sr. spoke about his son's plans during that meeting and also saw the impact of his career spent at the LA Galaxy. What's more, a beneficial stimulant was unwittingly injected into the mind of the elder Messi, and Maas showed what Americans do best: if Messi chooses Internacional Miami, it will undoubtedly promote the progress of the sport.
At the same time, Maas used this meeting to get the intelligence he needed most, that is, what the Messi family needed most. For the next three and a half years, he and Messi Sr. maintained regular communication, not only on the phone, but also on flights overseas to meet. Accurately grasp Messi's pain points: value and respect. On November 15, 2022, on the eve of the opening of the World Cup in Qatar, and also an ambiguous node for Messi's ambiguous future, a meeting of bigwigs quietly took place at the 1 Hotel in Brooklyn, New York, attended by Major League Chairman Don Garber, then Vice Chairman Mark Abbott, Chief Financial Officer Sean Prendergast and other executives, Maas brothers pushed the ambition to sign football stars in front of major league executives. They established a cost combination in this meeting, although in the American sports rules, three people in a team can be independent of the "salary cap" rule, but Messi's cost is not comparable to small fish and shrimp, they have to gather group strength and crowdfund tickets to feed Messi. The discussion that day envisaged the inclusion of Miami International's equity in Messi's contract, which is said to be $50-70 million a year, which is related to Miami International's equity valuation.
Give respect, but also space
It was an extraordinary decision, but the rules are dead and people are alive. Garber said in March this year that for a figure of Messi's level, he must be flexible, "Ronaldo's annual salary is as high as $100 million, and the transfer market is exploding in unimaginable ways." We must work out an agreement to compensate him in the way he and his family expect. "The basis for Messi's offer was laid here. Soon after, Maas flew to Doha, Qatar. On the day of the World Cup final, the most important moment of Messi's career, a photo inadvertently taken by a live fan at the end of regular time drowned in a sea of Twitter photos: Jorge Maas in a suit was in the VIP box where Jorge Messi was, next to Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone. 1 turn and 7 likes, that's the splash this photo stirred up when it was released.
Maas has a common American disease: a performative personality and a willingness to attract attention. But he knew that to sign Messi, he had to give his team something different from other noisy suitors: caution. He did not put pressure on the Messi family at the level of public opinion, but minimized. After the trip to Qatar, rumors about Messi's extension to Paris Saint-Germain were rife. Once again, Mas was calm and restrained and tight-lipped. Miami International knows that the news that Messi agreed to renew his contract is untrue, and he can't bear to make a big deal.
On April 4, 2023, the Grand League Board of Directors met again, this time in Northern California, and they also visited Apple headquarters for dinner with Apple executives. The meeting made Apple aware of the potential impact of Messi's joining Major League Messi, whose video company is the owner of the rights to broadcast in the major leagues, and Messi could proliferate their ticket apps and subscribers. And Eddie Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, is a Cuban-American from Miami, like the Maas brothers. Apple soon came up with the idea of working with Messi, which is also part of the Messi agreement, the details of which are not yet clear, but the content includes sharing revenue share with Messi for new users.
At the beginning of May, towards the end of the European season, Maas knew it was time. Maas's other role is that of president of Spanish club Zaragoza, a position that gives him an insight into Barca's financial hurdles to welcoming back Messi. At this time, it was also reported that Messi refused to renew his contract with Paris, and Maas left for Spain to see Jorge Messi goodbye. The message of the last meeting was the same as in the months and years that Maas knew he could not compete financially with the Saudi Arabia's $1 billion offer, but once again he put his dream in front of the elder Messi: permanently changing the sport in one of the world's largest countries and markets, Pele coming to the United States in 1975 to refresh people's perceptions of football, David Beckham pushing the big leagues forward in 2007, and Messi in 2023 could trigger even bigger changes.
A pie called Dreams
"How many opportunities do people have in their life to change a sport? It will be divided into before Messi's arrival and after Messi's arrival. Maas preached passionately to Jorge Messi. Familiar or not, similar to Jobs' demagoguery that John Sculley "wants to sell sugar water for a lifetime or change the world together".
Then Maas talked about the advantages of Miami: it took 9 hours to fly Argentina, 13 and a half for Barcelona, and more than 20 for Riyadh! When he retires, he can still run a team or run a league, and the commercial returns are more generous than the contract is written, with sponsors Apple and Adidas and sports e-commerce Fanatics' revenue share. Of course, this does not guarantee that the Messi family believes in the value of these opportunities as much as Maas.
Heaven and earth work together. Laporta paid lip service and Barca's return to naught, with Messi expressing disappointment with Daily Sport and World Sport: "After what I've been through, I don't want to repeat the same mistakes: just wait or leave my future to someone else." Paris also seems to smell Messi's "two hearts", and the "three stops" punishment played by the topic once made the relationship between guest and host invincible.
Now there is only one obstacle, the Riyadh New Moon. But early on the morning of June 7, 1,364 days after initial contact with Messi's team, Maas received a call from his office in downtown Miami that Messi had chosen Miami. He didn't jump or open champagne, but quietly walked out, knocked on the glass of his brother Jose's office, and told him that it was done. Excitement only delays, does not hide. A few hours later, Maas went down from the 12th floor to the 7th-floor office where the Miami International employees were, where everyone was watching Messi's interview. Maas knew what the Argentine supergiant, or football supergiant, was going to say, but listening to Messi himself, it was still different - "I decided to go to Miami. Maas shuddered, the office boiling.
Although Messi announced the news, the drafting and signing of the contract took more than a month. Major League players are actually signed with the league, not the respective teams, and of course, the pay-bearers are still the clubs.
Then Mas and the younger Bes finalized the addition of Sergio Busquets, Martino's coach. On July 11, Macy's plane landed at Fort Lauderdale Airport. After another 4-day "long" wait, the Miami International finally stamped an open secret with the official brand, and the era of the major league "before Messi" is over.
Written by Holden
The image comes from the Internet