Fifty years ago, a legend left Santos to join club football in the United States—someone many consider the greatest of all time, the King of Football, Pelé. Half a century later, another Latin American icon, Lionel Messi, has taken U.S. club football to new heights.
In 1975, Pelé joined the New York Cosmos of the then North American Soccer League (NASL). He was introduced as a new player in a chaotic press conference. The club’s spokesperson, John O’Reilly, later said, “We had many superstars in the United States, but none came close to Pelé. Everyone wanted to touch him, shake his hand, and take pictures with him.”
Although Pelé was long past his peak at the time, his magic still increased Americans’ interest in football. One could say they were newly drawn to the sport they themselves called “soccer.”
Pelé played his final competitive match on U.S. soil on August 28, 1977. By defeating the Seattle Sounders 2–1, he helped the Cosmos win their second Soccer Bowl title.
Though U.S. club football occasionally caught the global spotlight, no one managed to generate the kind of attraction Pelé did—until Messi seemingly ended that long void. With his arrival, U.S. club football, once pushed to the margins of the global game, returned to the spotlight.
Why would a global superstar turn down Al-Hilal’s astronomical salary to join an obscure club? Looking at Inter Miami’s situation at the time makes the surprise clear. Since its founding, the club had not tasted silverware, and its squad was far from strong. When Messi arrived, Miami sat at the bottom of the league table that season, having lost 11 of 16 matches. Even more astonishing, the team had no permanent head coach!
Everything began to change rapidly with the news of Messi’s signing. Ticket prices surged by more than a thousand percent—Miami match tickets jumped from $29 to $329 overnight. Tickets for his potential debut skyrocketed, with some selling for as much as $110,000.
Inter Miami became famous almost overnight. Their social media following exploded. Even before Messi’s debut, their Instagram followers rose from 1 million to 8 million.
With Messi’s presence alone, Miami transformed. That very year, they appeared in a new light in the Leagues Cup. Messi led from the front, scoring and assisting. He finished as the tournament’s top scorer with 10 goals and won the Player of the Tournament award for his consistent performances. In the final, Miami defeated Nashville to win the first trophy in the club’s history.
Yet even for a magician, everything is not always possible. That season, Messi could not take the team into the MLS Cup playoffs. The following year, however, he seemed determined to erase that disappointment—leading the team to the top and into the playoffs while setting a points record. Miami surpassed the 73-point record set by the New England Revolution in 2021 by reaching 74 points, winning the Supporters’ Shield and securing qualification for the Club World Cup.
Still, Miami were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Messi’s dream of winning the MLS Cup was shattered. Even so, the frenzy around him only grew. After matches, opposing players rushed toward him, all wanting his jersey.
In many games, even opposition fans could be heard chanting “Messi, Messi” from the stands. Normally, home fans would be happy if a rival star were absent—but Miami proved different. Opposing supporters seemed to wait eagerly for a glimpse of Messi’s magic.
When Messi was rested, opposing fans grew angry. The entire stadium celebrated his goals, making it hard to tell who the home supporters were, as rival fans joined Miami’s supporters in celebration.
All of this together shows how football—called “soccer” in the United States—is now trembling with Messi-fever, giving rise to new dreams.
While inspiring new dreams among American football fans, Messi has also fulfilled a dream of his own this season. By winning the MLS Cup this year, he erased the pain of the previous disappointment. With one magical performance after another in the playoffs, he himself made the greatest contribution to leading his team to the title.
