Businessman Jorge Mas, the majority shareholder of Inter Miami, was recently commenting on the idea that his team could compete in the Copa Libertadores with Lionel Messi at the head of the project. The Conmebol tournament is one of the few that the Argentine forward never had the opportunity to play throughout his successful career as a player.
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What had a beginning with a striking post by Alejandro Domínguez through social networks, is now taking on much more relevance in the world of football, especially by the fans, and evidently for Mas, who expressed it this way, in an interview with Ole Sports Summit.
“There will always be talk of an era of before and after Messi in the progress of soccer in the United States, it is the largest market in the world but it is in its soccer infancy. But I think that we are going to continue aspiring to have a team, a squad that can compete in international tournaments. We aspire to one day participate in the Libertadores,” he declared.
And he also added: “I think it is an important goal, it is a tournament that Messi has never participated in. We are also going to want to elevate the league to have participation and we would love to see if we are given the opportunity, the possibility of participating in the Club World Cup next year, and obviously aspire in four years to 2029, but we aspire to a lot.”
This project can be a reality
Although at the moment there is nothing concrete, it is not at all ruled out that this illusion of the club’s leaders could become real at some point, especially if it is about Messi and what could cause him to participate in a football tournament. this magnitude. The reality is that there are a series of asterisks that should be taken into account, such as the background, the options so that more clubs can participate in the Copa Libertadores, the competition calendar, and also what would be the trips from the United States to South America and vice versa.
For example, MetroStars and Kansas City competed in the now-defunct 2001 Merconorte Cup, and DC United once participated in the 2005 and 2007 Copa Sudamericana, as winners of the MLS Cup and the Supporters Shield. Some Mexican teams also did so in the Copa Libertadores, with consecutive participations between 1998 and 2016, and with the finals of Cruz Azul against Boca Juniors in 2011 and of Tigres against River Plate in 2015.
“Seeing that now Inter Miami is a global club, that when we talk about the greats in the world we are included, it amazes us in certain view because we have been able to achieve it. We are going to continue dreaming big, always wanting the best soccer players in the world to want to play for Inter Miami. Having Lionel here has been a blessing for the club, and for football in this country, I think he is having an extremely good time, he is at a very high level. His family is happy here and we are very happy,” Mas noted.
Jorge Mas and the memory of Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami
“When we said we were going to bring Lionel Messi I never doubted; Otherwise, he wouldn’t have brought it. It was a very long process, with meetings in Miami, Rosario, Paris, Qatar, and London… a four-year process. But in less than a year since the announcement, we have experienced Lionel’s impact, and he looks at what we have achieved. What it has represented to the MLS and the United States, but also to Leo. I told him when he appeared in the Super Bowl commercial that he had no idea of the cultural relevance of it, that he had become the most popular athlete in the United States, for the first time someone foreign and a football fan. He recognizes it and you don’t have to look beyond his smile when he scores a goal when he looks at his family,” he said.
