The push to bring soccer into the US mainstream has been ongoing for the best part of fifty years. From the heady days of Pele in the NASL to the birth of Major League Soccer, many attempts have been made to see the sport break in the country and to at least challenge the likes of the NFL, MLB, and NBA, and those efforts have been given a massive boost in recent weeks and months.
The capture by new MLS franchise Inter Miami of legendary player Lionel Messi has given the sport a massive shot in the arm and could well be the push that was needed to see soccer really launch in the United States.
The timing is, of course, very deliberate. The 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place across North America and is very much part of the overall calendar as Messi looks to put his footprint on the game in the US.
Outside the US, soccer is, without a doubt, the biggest sport on the planet. As a sign of this popularity, let’s consider the relative audience of the biggest event in the United States sporting year, the Super Bowl versus the FIFA World Cup.
Soccer, the World’s Sport
The Super Bowl typically sees around 120 million viewers tuning in to watch the pinnacle of the American Football season. The FIFA World Cup final in 2022, which saw Lionel Messi play a key role in Argentina’s thrilling penalty shoot-out win over France, was watched by an estimated 1.5 billion people.
Soccer is THAT big, and as such, it’s commonly used as a promotional tool for games, adverts, and popular culture, from TV shows to films, but it’s a pastime that stubbornly fails to truly break into the American psyche.
Messi’s arrival has already proven a massive success for Inter Miami. The veteran forward has scored 11 goals in 11 games, and the struggling MLS side is now looking to push on towards the playoffs.
It’s all been meticulously planned by the club fronted by David Beckham. The manager now in charge of the team, Gerardo Martino, is Messi’s former Barcelona and national team coach, and two of the player’s former Camp Nou team-mates have joined the club (Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets), all of which will give the team a very good chance of achieving success on the playing front.
Popularity
In shirt sales alone, Messi’s signing with Inter Miami saw his shirt sell more than any other sports star in a 24-hour period.
Those who are less well-versed in the history of the game may not know just how influential and successful Messi has been over the years. The 36-year-old started his career in Argentina before moving to FC Barcelona at the age of 13, and by 17, he had made his first-team debut.
Over the next 17 seasons, he racked up 672 goals in 778 games, both club records, and led the Catalan side to ten domestic league championships as well as four UEFA Champions Leagues before he moved to Paris Saint-Germain in 2021.
Messi spent just two seasons in the French capital, proving a success on a personal level before the allure of an American switch came into view. The attacker could well have chosen any club he liked for his next move, and by all accounts, the offer from Saudi Arabia was far more lucrative than from Inter Miami, but clearly, he felt there was more to achieve in the US.
On the international front, Messi has made more appearances and scored more goals than anyone has, and that 2022 FIFA World Cup success was very much the icing on the cake for a career that has seen the cultured star win everything possible.
Big Goals
Inter Miami came into being in 2018, and they made their MLS bow in 2020, and on the playing front, they have not hit the ground running. However, with Martino now in charge and with some truly world-class talents among his squad, they have a very good chance of meeting their very grand goals.
The MLS has had periods of peak popularity, which have usually coincided with the arrival of big names from Europe and South America, but nothing on this scale, and the signs are that the next two to three years will be pivotal in the growth of soccer in the United States, where the sky is very much the limit.