MIAMI — The drive from Little Havana to South Beach captures the broad range of Miami’s topographical landscape. Here I am on the elevated highway, like millions of frustrated Miamians during rush hour, as the MacArthur Causeway guides me over the city’s districts.
From Brickell to the neighborhood of Overtown, I pass old and new construction sites. Luxury buildings sit above the water. Eventually, I reach Miami Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. In the skies, a combination of weather patterns dance together, completely contradicting each other’s status. On one side, a storm is brewing, and on the other, clear blue skies. A contradiction. That’s Miami.
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Back on the highway and I suddenly jump from my seat as I hear a scream from the driver’s seat. “Look!” says Alejandro, the Colombian Uber driver, pointing toward the billboard with childlike giddiness. “There he is!” Indeed. There he is. Lionel Messi — Inter Miami’s (and Major League Soccer’s) record signing — in all his glory, with black and pink enriching the poster, welcoming him to South Florida.
“Bienvenido Leo,” says Alejandro, greeting the billboard as if he were talking about a family member coming to stay. In a way, he’s not wrong.
Is the club ready, truly ready, for Messi’s arrival and debut, which is scheduled to be July 21 against Cruz Azul in the Leagues Cup? “I know the club is working day and night in the communications department, front office, everyone that is involved. If they’re ready or not, I have no idea,” Cantor says.
Regardless of the meticulous preparations, we are talking about Messi, so truthfully, when it comes to one of the most popular human beings in the world, how ready can you truly be?
“Last time he was here for the Argentina game (the friendly against Honduras) at Hard Rock Stadium (home of the Miami Dolphins), we were here working for the training sessions and I was guarding the gate,” says Bobby Lewis, a security guard at Inter Miami’s stadium. “And we saw people climbing palm trees screaming, ‘Messi! Messi!’ And I was like, ‘What the hell is going on here?'”
Lewis is anticipating a packed and overwhelming situation at DRV PNK stadium, a ground built on the same site as the old Lockhart Stadium. The stadium has a deep history with Florida ssoccer, where the Fort Lauderdale Strikers from the NASL and MLS’s Miami Fusion played before folding in 2002. Messi’s arrival — both for the unveiling and the debut — will be a massive moment for the site, and one Lewis wants to fully be part of.
The stadium is an open-style design, the Fort Lauderdale skyline looming in the distance, with an allocation of 18,000 seats, but the aim is to add 3,200 more. Aside from the seating, there are other factors to take into consideration, such as transportation (DRV PNK is on open land with a slightly congested entrance to and from the parking lots), but most importantly, making sure pitch invaders don’t enter the field, something that is easy to do at DRV PNK. “I want to be one of the guys who tackles the invader when it happens!” Lewis says.
This week, since new Inter Miami coach Tata Martino’s first training session, the club has already been altering security measures for open training sessions. Media that report during the training sessions require wristbands and metal detector wands are abundantly present. Little by little, the club is getting ready for Messi.
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“He is an industry changer. For him to come to Miami feels like something that every South Floridian can really embrace for what the time is now. Collectively, I think it impacts all of the sports teams in South Florida. Kudos to those who had been working behind the scenes on this. It came out of nowhere to the rest of us — it was like Christmas morning. What a gift to the American sports fanbase.”
When Messi steps on the pitch at DRV PNK stadium for the first time, it could feel like an existential moment for Inter Miami fans, the league and every single soccer fan in America. It will be cathartic for those who worked so hard on making it happen, and poetic for those who are there to bear witness. South Florida’s sticky air will carry the energized voices of every fan calling out his name as he walks in blinding pink. “Messi, Messi, Messi,” they’ll say with exhausted, albeit relentless, breath. Sure, we have heard these chants before over and over again. From Barcelona and PSG to the World Cup final with Argentina.
This time, however, it will be different because in their distinct, rich, quintessential style, these chants are made only in Miami. A town Messi now calls home.
