(Fort Lauderdale) Seven-time Argentinian Ballon d’Or Lionel Messi starts on the bench on Friday for his first game in the colors of Inter Miami, his new club, in a League Cup match against Mexico’s Cruz Azul.
The 36-year-old world champion joined his new team’s training sessions earlier this week and the soccer world is hoping to see him play his first minutes with Inter Miami, at their Dr V PNK stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
His former FC Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets, who also recently arrived in Miami, is also not in the XI of coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino, still a former Barça player.
Sports stars such as LeBron James and Serena Williams were in attendance at the 20,000-capacity venue, where many fans wore Messi’s pink flocked jerseys.
But Martino did not give any guarantees regarding his popular rookie coming on: “We’ll see, it depends a bit on how the game turns out.”
The match, which began shortly after 8 p.m. local time (8 p.m. EST on Saturday), kicks off the Leagues Cup, a new summer tournament that brings together the 47 clubs of MLS and the Mexican league for the first time.
This competition, which will be played in the United States and Canada until the final on August 19, has taken on particular interest worldwide since the announcement of Messi’s participation.
Inter Miami co-owner, former England star David Beckham, however, urged fans to be patient, explaining that Messi and Sergio Busquets would need “time to adjust”.
The Argentinian number 10 left Paris Saint-Germain for Florida this summer, at the end of his contract.
Inter Miami enter the League Cup as the bottom of the MLS Eastern Conference.
