What won’t be easy for Messi in this transition?

Chris Winningham is with Inter Miami.

He's with Apple TV, the MLS package. Man, you have been down there for a long time. You've been involved with Inter Miami, doing the broadcast for a while. I have never seen anything like what I watched last night for a non-game. How many people were there, were there last night, I know the weather wasn't great, simply to say hello.

Explain Lionel Messi and what he means. So there is over 20,000 people there. There was some, I imagine every seat would have been full were it not for what was an absolutely torrential downpour that came over the stadium just as they were about to open the gates to let people in and get the festivities started. And fortunately, because this was a very impeccably timed event, it had to be going on at a certain time to time up with the gold cup final halftime show.

And so this had to go off at exactly the time that it was supposed to go off. So thankfully the storm cleared and everyone was led into the stadium in terms of your question about the size of Lionel Messi and how big this is. It's just, I think it's difficult to describe how big Lionel Messi is to an American audience because imagine whoever our biggest sports star is, right? Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, LeBron James, whomever, except make that person the biggest sports star for the entire world.

Right. And it's very difficult to sort of get a grasp on that because our American sports are not only the best versions of those sports, but also they really only matter here in the United States. Like if basketball has some global popularity, but for the most part, our sports only really matter here. And so we have a very kind of, we live in a bubble of our sports, but when you connect with the globe as soccer does, it's difficult to comprehend how big Lionel Messi is, not just in Spain, where he played for a large portion of his career or in Argentina, but everywhere he goes, people just want to be near him. And that was the feeling you got last night was it was just these 20,000 people, some of whom are season ticket holders, some of whom might've paid somewhere between 30 and $300 to be in the door again, just to be near it. And that, and that was the feeling we just, people just wanted to be near what was going to be this explosion. And I think that that was definitely, if that was the goal of Inter Miami last night, it was accomplished because being in the stadium, it was just a remarkable atmosphere and feeling of, Oh my God, this is really happening. Did they just want to be like near him in the Publix as well?

Cause I saw that on, whether it might've been threads for all I know, certainly on Twitter. I saw him shop, he got a full shopping cart. I didn't, I couldn't see what was in there. But did he just go to Publix and stock up?

Yeah. Following in the long South American tradition of children enjoying sugary cereals. I'm Colombian myself. And whenever my cousin's over, they're, they're desperate to get peanut butter crunch cereal. They like, they don't have it at home and they just want to have sugary American cereals.

And I imagine the children of Leon will be enjoying the treats of giant boxes of lucky charms. But yeah, that's, that's what was in the shopping cart that I think, and in some ways you might be making a mountain out of a molehill here, but I do think there was a certain amount of, you know what? I never did. I never did. I never did my shopping when I was in Barcelona because I couldn't, I can't do my shopping in Argentina. I probably couldn't in Paris just because you get mobbed. You're too big of a star.

I think Lionel Messi is a big enough star. Like anybody would be to get a few selfies in a Publix. But, but you know, it wasn't, you know, completely shut the store down and we need security to clear the place. Like he was still able to do his shopping, go back to the car and, and, and get on with his life. I think that's probably something that he really appreciates. One of the things that kind of radiated off of last night's event was not just the joy of the crowd, but the joy of Messi himself. I think he's really happy here and, and he, and he will enjoy his next couple of years in MLS as long as presumably they, they win some games. Yeah.

And they are, they are last in their division right now, 15th out of 15, Chris Whittingham commentator, major league soccer on Apple TV, also Inter Miami. He's bringing friends or at least friend. I thought it was going to be two. I'm not sure it's going to be to Sergio Busquets is coming a Jordi Alba. Yes. No.

Where are we with that? Yeah. So Busquets is over the line. He was announced before the main event last night, a couple of hours, and he actually came out and spoke to the crowd. Obviously I think the crowd sort of felt like they needed to meet the moment with him as well. And I think they did, but ultimately everyone was there to see messy. But yeah, I think Sergio was kept as an incredible player.

If it was just him, it'd be like, wow, let's see it. Like I would, I would be really fascinated into how he just himself would fit into this league, nevermind combining with messy and sort of forming that access to the middle of how are they going to completely change the game for Inter Miami. But yeah, he's, he's definitely a key part of getting messy the ball. It's an, it's an important trait to have in the team.

Do you have someone that has that passing ability that has the ability to sort of not just get him the ball positions that he wants it, but sort of dictate the game. So that's the kind of game that messy thrives in because I don't think that, and sometimes MLS games just sort of by their nature, I think a lot of teams like to play in transition and are sort of aiming to get into those moments. I think I'm not certain that these guys want to play games of tennis, which sometimes MLS games can become. And so I imagine that the key for blue sketch will be to control the midfield and to settle the game and allow messy to sort of thrive in an environment that he is used to. But that's a, that's a difficult challenge because you don't have 11 Barcelona players.

You might have three. And I do think eventually the Jordi Alba thing will get over the line. I think that that announcement is being delayed because his wife is expecting their third child.

And so, yeah, that, that, that one will be done. It just was on a little bit of a slower timeline than messy blue sketch who were done before last night's announcement. Chris Winningham does commentary for Major League Soccer on Apple TV and Inter Miami. So Wayne Rooney, who has familiarity with, with MLS, not only as a player at the end, but also as a manager, because you alluded to the, maybe the difference in how the stuff, you know, the difference in styles between what he's used to and what MLS is. He says it will not be easy for messy. Messy is still great. He's not what he used to be like. LeBron is still great. He's not what he used to be, but he's still great.

How, what are your thoughts on how, what kind of an impact messy will have? I actually think LeBron is a fairly decent parallel here because if you watch him play now, it's not every single time down the floor on both ends, right? Particularly on the defensive end with messy. If you watch him at the world cup, he's almost sort of conserving energy when Argentina didn't have the ball sort of walking around.

You look at him go up. I mean, that doesn't look like a player that's giving his all, but he's saving himself for the moments in which the game comes to life and he is required. And I think that's sort of who he is as a player.

Now that requires an adjustment of an entire team who will presumably be more than willing and able to do that work. I think what Wayne Rooney is referring to is sort of a variety of factors that make big time signings in major league soccer a question, because there are a lot of different factors about playing in this league that I think some international players are not ready for. The travel is certainly one of them. You will never travel in a domestic league like you will in the United States. It's such a big country that, you know, going, you could easily be playing in Orlando one weekend in Vancouver, the next, and that's a six hour flight, you know, worth of difference.

The weather, obviously you're coming into, I mean, it is so incredibly hot and humid right now in Miami and obviously is in a lot of areas around the country. So you have weather, I think as well, the difference in qualities and also quality. And so what I mean by that is obviously the technical quality of players is not as good because the best players in the world are playing in Europe, but also that doesn't mean that they're worse players. They're just different players.

And so they express themselves in the form of physicality, in the form of energy, in the form of running. And I think some players come over here and think, well, because the technical quality isn't as good, I can sort of get by on my abilities. I don't necessarily be fully added, but what the players here don't have in technical quality, they make up for it and try hard and an athletic ability, genuine athletic ability. And so sometimes you think, oh, I'll usually get the beating of the defender that's in front of me, but they're also incredibly quick and fast and strong, and they just might not have other strengths that will make them European quality players.

And so it's a different kind of skill that's valued in the American game. And so sometimes you come over and you're like, wait a second, this is different. This is unlike what I was expecting.

It's harder than I was expecting. And I think in some ways now the big European signing bingo card, like the center square is this is harder than I thought, because every big European signing that comes here at some point says this league is better than I thought it was going to be or harder than it was. And I thought it was going to be because all these players are commanding a salary.

They sort of fit into a particular style. And a lot of teams in MLS have very defined identities that are hard to play against. So I don't think it's a given, but if there is any given in this world, it's that Lionel Messi will be good at soccer. And so I think that he will be just fine.

And it might take some adjustment, but I don't think it'll be at the level of difficulty where he won't be successful here. Final thing for Chris Whittingham. I know Lionel came out and said he will not be part of the World Cup, the next one in 2026. But what do we expect maybe for Copa Americas, which the United States will host in 2024?

Yeah. I mean, it's less than a year's time from now that that tournament will kick off. So I imagine he will sort of be using this as a ramp up period. He'll probably, if you look at the current situation with the league table, right?

So Miami has to probably pick up, you know, somewhere between 25 and 26 more points from 12 games left in the MLS regular season. This weekend starts in a whole new tournament, a leaks cup, which is league at meccies, the Mexican top flight against MLS 47 teams. It'll be a month long tournament. I think it'll be a really cool thing, but it's not league play.

Right. So there's a chance that my, that Inter Miami Lionel Messi season is done at the end of October and only three months off. And so I think it'll kind of be the perfect time for him to sort of rest and recover in a way in which he never has before. You'll never have had a break that long. So have the time to rest and recover and then really ramp up and get going for the first half of next season.

So that, I mean, Argentina are not, not going to call him in. So it's about being ready for it and being physically fit and informed. And I think that will be the goal of the first half of next year is to be ready for that tournament when it comes to these shorts. By the way, the first MLS game league fixture, uh, will be Charlotte FC at Inter Miami, uh, coming up, uh, what like in about a week or so, two weeks or so. Uh, so that should be an absolute blast.

Chris Whittingham. Uh, I appreciate your time as always, my friend, uh, be well, have fun. Uh, how can you not? I mean, this has got to be the most energizing thing for those of us who are fans and you are living it. So, uh, have a good time and I will talk to you again. Thanks Adam.