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Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham has revealed the conversation that snowballed into the biggest signing in the history of Major League Soccer.
Former Barcelona star Lionel Messi left PSG to join Inter Miami in June after two years in the French capital.
Beckham discussed his journey to bring the Argentine World Cup winner to Miami in the Stick to Football Podcast.
“When I started this journey 10 years ago, announcing that I was starting a team in Miami, my vision was always to bring the best players,” Beckham said. “Now, I suppose as an owner of a team, you always want to bring the best players, but the chance of bringing the best players is difficult and always challenging.
Beckham said a secret meeting was organized with the-then Barcelona captain in 2019.
“I sneaked into Messi’s dad’s hotel about four years ago in Barcelona for a meeting with him. And obviously, at that point, you know, we weren’t ready to bring him and he wasn’t ready to come. But then I turned around to his dad and said, we want your son, we want him to come to Miami when he’s ready.
“And if that’s a possibility, we continued the conversations and with my partners and we just worked on it for, for about four years. And then when he was at PSG, we then saw an opportunity that he was either going to go back to Barcelona.
“But then all of a sudden everything aligned and then we were still having the conversations but to bring someone like him to, to the club, we knew it would change the club and we knew it would change the league and the sport.”
The former England captain then shared his raw reaction when he found out about Messi’s interview, in which he stated his next destination.
“I think it was actually more emotional than it should have been. Just because for the last 10 years to try and get this team up and running in Miami, there’s been so many obstacles, so many challenges and sometimes it looked like it weren’t going to happen.
“And then obviously, everything came together once I found the right partners in Miami. But the moment I was actually in Japan – the morning that I found out that he was coming, his dad had called us that week and said Leo is going to make an announcement. And then obviously two days out, they was like, ok, in the next two or three days, he’s going to come out and say something.
“So we were kind of just waiting and I was in Japan working and it was five o’clock in the morning. The kids are in bed. Victoria is still sleeping and my phone is like going mad because I forgot to turn it on silent. So Victoria is like telling me to turn it off.
“So I pick it up and I saw a barrage of messages and it was just, he’d come out and done his interview, but we always obviously wanted him to make a decision based on, you know, he wanted to live there with his family, wanted to still win and play, play football in the way he plays it.
“But we wanted him to announce it in, in his way and he literally was sat in a hotel room with his mate filming and saying that he’s coming to Miami. So for us, it was like, it was an un I was very emotional about it because it, it’s taken a long, a long a lot of like hard work to get here.”
Beckham said Messi joining his team has been a game-changer and the effect has been deeply-felt.
“But it’s beyond that, you know, it’s beyond what he does on the pitch, what he does off the pitch, you know, for the young kids, you know, to bring someone like him is the dream and also Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets but to bring Leo, he’s changed everything, you know, the academy kids now have got someone else to look up to that has done everything, won everything and he’s teaching them, which is, which is amazing.
“You know, the other day it was a, it was a funny interview from one of the academy kids who’s doing really well and they turned around to him and said, you know, what’s the best bit of advice Leo’s given you so far? And he said to walk more.
“He was like, he told me to walk more in the game. He said, because you see more so, you know, it’s already started with the good that he does. It’s incredible.”
The former England Real Madrid midfielder expressed his admiration for Messi, going on to describe just how humble the 36-year-old is.
“I mean, I played against him, obviously for PSG and I played against him for Real Madrid at Barcelona. And you could, obviously, he was unbelievable then, but it’s not until you physically see him and be sat there and you’re watching him and every move that he does and he never gives the ball away.
“He’s unbelievable for the young kids. He’s great with the young kids and, and watching Leo in training, you know, when he first joined and when he arrived in Miami and he was training, I was there for the first five weeks when he first arrived and I was in the training ground 7 a.m. every morning just to, just to watch him and I’m 48 years old.
“So to just watch him do what he does train the way he does prepare the way. It’s just different.
“So everything, literally everything he never give, like I said, never gives the ball away. His work ethic is still there, you know, he won the World Cup last year and he still is as hungry as he was when he was a young kid. So it, it’s amazing.
“Yeah, but apart from that he is, he’s so humble. He is really humble. He’s not left alone, he’s chased everywhere. He’s followed everywhere. There’s thousands of people every single day at the training ground just to watch him get in his car and leave and drive down the road. He drives himself to the supermarket does his shopping goes home and people are shocked at that, but that is him.
“He’s humble, he’s hard working. He’s got a great family. His wife’s amazing. The kids are amazing. He’s just a normal guy with an unbelievable talent.”