If you can't beat them, join them. David Beckham and Inter Miami appeared to take those words seriously as they sought to overturn Barcelona's legacy in the 2014-15 season.
Beckham's Miami-based Major League Soccer franchise has struggled a bit since it first kicked off in 2020.
They have become the best club in world football to wear the pink home kit, but have struggled to make their mark in MLS and rise to the top of domestic and continental competitions.
A change was needed. A club that had not been able to make its presence known until now shocked the world by signing Lionel Messi in 2023.
Unfortunately we were deprived of an alternate reality where Messi is managed by Phil Neville, but that was probably for the best. But with the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner joining Inter Miami, why stop at just one Barcelona legend?
In order to finally recoup their investment in MLS, Inter Miami pivoted on their quest for success. Taking advantage of a gap in the market, they have since used Messi as a means of simply replicating the backbone of the 2014-15 treble-winning Barcelona, adding Sergio Busquets and Jordi to satisfy the Argentine. – Signed a contract with Alba.
Suddenly, things changed. Miami suddenly went from being the laughing stock of the league to being able to play beautiful one-touch, two-touch football, and the trio's colleagues suddenly began to resemble the Barcelona players themselves.
But hiring Gerardo Martino as manager and trying to turn Robbie Robinson into Neymar wasn't enough. There was still a part missing.
In their corner was Luis Suárez, who was busy motivating them at Atlético Madrid and then Gremio until the end of 2023, when he decided it was time to reunite the band.
Reuniting a band years after their heyday often doesn't work out. The Hardy Boys were struggling to live up to their former extreme glory, the Stone Roses reformed and disbanded after one poor single release and some very expensive gigs, and Cristiano Ronaldo Things were destined to get worse when he returned to Manchester United.
But there's clearly something underwater in Miami. Since Messi, Busquets and Alba have reunited, they have once again blossomed into an unstoppable beast. And now that they have Suarez back, they have reached their final form.
Ahead of the 2024 MLS season, Suarez made his Inter Miami debut in a friendly against his former colleagues, and it quickly became clear that the magic was never really going away. That's because the quartet produced such great offensive play that your face melts with nostalgia. off.
Inter Miami 𝐬𝐨 Closed 🤏
Good to see that the links between Alba, Suarez, Busquets and Messi are still there 🤝
(via @MLS) pic.twitter.com/Yo1YUFULbk
— B/R Football (@brfootball) January 20, 2024
Some people never lose it. With a connection that is more than just human, Alba is able to fire a pass to Suarez, who then finds Busquets. He then displayed a telepathic connection with Messi, who exploded with power and surprisingly glossed over one of the greatest build-up plays of all time.
He scored an almost perfect goal from Barcelona's training ground with a very clever double save.
It was like clockwork. If you put your team on in red and blue kits, you'd be mistaken as if you were watching La Blaugrana progress through the Champions League.
Signing a number of former Barça stars in the final years of their careers may not be the most sustainable way to build a nascent football club, but a tremendous amount like Beckham and his co-owners Certainly, if you have no amount of cash, it is the most fun way to do things.
Suarez needs no introduction, and if he continues to work with his old teammates like this after the MLS season begins, Inter Miami will move deeper in their quest to finally win the MLS Cup. I have a good feeling about the possibilities — no, I'm wrong. No matter how they achieved it.
Written by Mitch Wilkes
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