By Joiner Martínez
Jun 18, 2024, 18:46 PM EDT
Jorge Mas, majority shareholder of Inter Miami, revived the idea that his team could compete in the Copa Libertadores with Lionel Messi at the helm.
The Conmebol tournament is one of the few that Messi never had the opportunity to play in throughout his successful career.
What began with a striking post by Alejandro Domínguez through social networks now takes on a little more notoriety with Mas’s public desire in an interview with Olé Sports Summit.
Mas stated: “There will always be talk of an era of before and after Messi in the development 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.”
And he added: “I think it is an important goal, it is a tournament that Leo 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. ”.
Although for now there is nothing concrete, it is not ruled out that the leaders’ dreams become reality, especially if it involves Messi. What is certain is that there are a series of points to take into account, such as the background, the options for more teams to play the Libertadores, the calendar and the extensive travel between South America and the United States.
For example, MetroStars and Kansas City competed in the now-defunct 2001 Merconorte Cup and DC United competed 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 uninterrupted participation between 1998 and 2016, and with the finals of Cruz Azul against Boca in 2011 and Tigres against River in 2015.
The short way would be the invitation. In this case, Conmebol should do the same thing it did with DC United and in this way put Inter Miami on the grid of competitors.
The other alternatives, meanwhile, would be to create a new competition that links South American football with Concacaf (home runs between the champions of Concachampions, Leagues Cup, Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana) or reissue the Inter-American Cup (the champions of the Libertadores would play it and the Concacaf Champions Cup).
“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 aspects 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, 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.
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