Inter Miami is not going to stop signing superstars to join Lionel Messi, MLS commissioner Don Garber believes, as Luis Suarez prepares for first season with Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets
- Inter Miami kicks off the new Major League Soccer season on Wednesday
- Lionel Messi has been joined by Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez
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Inter Miami is showing no signs of stopping its pursuit of soccer superstars, MLS commissioner Don Garber has claimed ahead of Lionel Messi’s first full season in the United States.
Messi joined Major League Soccer last summer in a huge coup for Miami – the team part-owned by David Beckham – and soccer on this side of the Atlantic.
He was soon joined by former Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. And then, this offseason, Luis Suarez joined the revolution in South Florida.
Miami’s star-studded team will kick-off the 2024 MLS season against Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night and Garber believes Tata Martino could soon field even more icons of world soccer.
That is despite a senior executive at another MLS team recently claiming that Miami’s star signings have left the club financially ‘screwed’.
‘Its important to remind ourselves and everybody else that having arguably the best player of all time in our league says a lot about where MLS is, and how far it’s come over the years,’ he told ESPN.
‘And I don’t think Miami is stopping, right? Signing Luis Suárez and putting together a bunch of guys that Leo has played with for so many years, I think is fun. It’s exciting. And I think we’re going to see just more energy, and lots more attention.’
Miami recently returned from a global tour that took Messi and Co to Japan, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and El Salvador.
It was a mark of the team’s newfound global appeal and Garber insists he has no concerns ‘at all’ about Messi overshadowing the rest of the league.
‘This is more about a long-term plan to grow the competitiveness of our league and the popularity of our teams and each club, and this is the key part of it: each club has got to decide how best that’s going to work for them,’ he said.
We’re trying to always open up our team and our league to those people that are fans of the sport that might not yet be fully committed to our clubs, and getting people here and around the world to follow MLS and experience it is a positive.’
He added: ‘Our job is to convert those fans into being passionate supporters of our league and our clubs. And if we have a brand that has global recognition like Inter Miami does, that’s a positive.
‘I think you see that with clubs that are resonating around the world in all leagues.’
