Lionel Messi at B.C. Place against the Whitecaps in August? It could ...

Meetings between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Florida teams are rare, but everyone is checking the odds with Messi joining Inter Miami

Published Jun 07, 2023  •  Last updated 5 hours ago  •  2 minute read

Lionel Messi of Argentina celebrates the team's 3-0 victory in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 semi final match between France and Morocco at Al Bayt Stadium on December 14, 2022 in Al Khor, Qatar. Photo by Clive Brunskill /Getty Images

“It could finish 7-6 and nobody would care — everyone’s talking about Messi!”

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Vancouver Whitecaps coach Vanni Sartini was in his usual wise-cracking, spiritoso mood before Wednesday night’s Canadian Championship final, joking that the column space dedicated to Lionel Messi’s move to Major League Soccer might bump them off the front of Vancouver’s sports pages.

But there is no downplaying the seismic impact of the global megastar’s arrival on this side of the Atlantic. It will bring more eyeballs to MLS — and the more he brings, the more money he will get by virtue of his contract, which includes a cut of all Apple TV subscriptions.

“I can only be reminded of the time when I was in Europe and Zlatan came over, how much more attraction this league got in Europe because Zlatan was here,” said Whitecaps CEO Axel Schuster. “And now we get the greatest of all time. I don’t think anybody can really imagine right now what that means for the league.”

Messi declined to rejoin Barcelona, fearing the club’s financial situation, and dismissed the megabucks offered by Saudi team al-Hilal — a reported $300 million-per-year offer — to come to MLS. In addition to the Apple money, he will get a percentage of jersey sales, and likely will have negotiated a David Beckham-esque ownership clause in his contract. Beckham added the right to buy an MLS expansion team for $25M in his contract, which turned into the half-billion dollar valued Inter Miami team that Messi will join.

“It will have an impact to everyone because everyone will look a little bit more closely at this league. Why is Messi going there? What is behind that? Why you took that over bigger dollars in some other markets?” said Schuster. “And they will watch the competition, and they will see how teams do … and how he has an impact in this league but also how the guys next to him look like and I think this is what the league needs.

“We still need more understanding the world what the level of our league really is at this point.”

Now, will he come to B.C. Place this year? The chances are slim, but perhaps better than a potential regular-season meeting. It would mean the Caps and Inter Miami had both made it to the final of the Leagues Cup — the exhibition tournament between MLS and LigaMX teams — in August.

Inter Miami has never played the Whitecaps in the club’s 3 1/2 years in MLS, along with four other Western Conference teams: St. Louis, which just joined the league this season, Real Salt Lake, Sporting Kansas City and the Colorado Rapids.

It’s been a while since the Caps took on any Florida opposition; they made the 5,166 km trip to Orlando in 2019, and the last time Orlando came here was way back in 2018.