Beckham and Messi: the duo to revolutionise MLS

Way back in 2007, David Beckham, already a huge star in England and the rest of Europe, swapped out his Madrid jersey to head for LA Galaxy in the Major League Soccer. Now, it looks like Leo Messi taking on bottom-of-the-league Inter Miami could be the next step in bringing MLS to the forefront of world football.

Before the announcement of Messi's signing with Miami, their Instagram account had barely 1 million followers. Less than 24 hours later, that number has rocketed to 6.5 million. This is the publicity power of stars like the Argentinian, but he wasn't the first.

Beckham's move across the pond also garnered huge media attention and he encouraged MLS to be creative financially in order to attract the best players in the world. Through Beckham, MLS created the "designated player" figure that allowed clubs to circumvent salary caps to afford certain big-name signings.

"You can look back at that moment as the key. There's no question that Beckahm coming here made us a global brand," Chris Klein, who was Beckham's teammate in the Galaxy locker room, told the 'Los Angeles Times' in 2020.

But another key to the spectacular deal that brought the Englishman across the Atlantic, was that MLS guaranteed him an option to acquire a club in the league for $25 million, a possibility that in 2020 ended up becoming Inter Miami. Now, according to Forbes magazine, the team is valued at $600 million.

It seems once again, MLS has gotten creative to bring over the Argentinian. 'The Athletic' reported on Tuesday that the league and tech giants 'Apple' have put on the table to offer the Argentinian a share of the profits generated by new subscribers to the 'MLS Season Pass' service of 'Apple TV+'.

The tech company and MLS signed an agreement in 2022 for 'Apple TV+' to have the rights to the league for 10 years to broadcast all matches around the world. 

On top of this, Adidas, Messi's very close partner since he was a youngster and which dresses all 29 MLS teams, has also proposed to share a portion of the profits with the player, derived from his arrival in MLS in merchandising sales.

There is also the possibility that Messi could be offered an option similar to Beckham's to acquire a team further down the line. 

There is no doubt that the league will grow extensively with Messi in terms of merchandising, ticket sales (prices to see Inter Miami have already gone through the roof), advertising revenue, social media presence and also as a magnet to attract other talents, not disimilar to the Saudi business model.

But Messi also has a lot to gain from a Miami with a huge Latin American market and, especially, with two very important dates on the calendar that will take place in the United States: the Copa America to be held there in 2024 and, above all, the 2026 World Cup jointly organized by the U.S., Mexico and Canada.