Inside David Beckham’s Inter Miami revolution: The man who got Lionel Messi to MLS

It’s extremely fitting that, after all of these years of hopes and dreams and rumors, it was David Beckham that finally pulled this off. It was Beckham, the man that kickstarted Major League Soccer as we know it today, that is now bringing the league into overdrive. It was Beckham that, finally, landed Lionel Messi.

Truth be told, Beckham, and his Inter Miami project, was the only one that could have done it. No other American club could have pulled it off. Miami provides the perfect combination of star power, culture, glamor, glitz, location and, yes, money. This is the only way this move could have come together.

Beckham will be the name in headlines credited for the success, although it isn’t his and his alone. His co-owners, the Mas brothers, did much of the legwork. MLS, as a league, did what it had to do to get the deal over the line. Apple and adidas assisted too. And finally, credit goes to Messi for being ambitious enough to take the chance on Miami and, by proxy, American soccer.

But Messi’s big leap could never have happened without Beckham. It was the English icon that paved the road that Messi is now walking on, even if the Argentinian genius is a safe bet to take things further than Beckham ever did

This revolution, though, began with Beckham, who turned a late-career move to Los Angeles into a club of his own that is now a legitimate player on the world stage.