Messi did not come out. People began to leave. Many thought that, easier, they would see him through the window of the Bolivariano bus that took him to the stadium. Few succeeded. The American team left almost two hours after the match ended at the Atanasio. The excitement of seeing the Argentine “10” lasted until then.
Javier Mascherano, the former Argentine footballer who inherited Messi’s captain’s armband, knew it well. the National Team of his country and was his teammate in the Spanish Barcelona, but now he is their coach. “The objective of this preseason is to arrive in the best way at the beginning of our League. But we also know that having the players we have allows us to come to these places and for people to enjoy themselves. In addition, it helps us generate new fans for the club. That is the advantage of having players like Lionel,” said “El Jefecito”, 41 years old.
All the people who went to the stadium enjoyed seeing the Argentine. You only have to look at social media to know: they are saturated with warm-up and training videos. Messi is a mass phenomenon and Inter Miami knows it. That’s why they hired him in 2023. Their presence is, in part, the big reason why the pink team has grown so much in fans that it is about to open a stadium with capacity for 25,000 people in “the city of the sun.”
What was the “mess effect” that Inter Miami sought?
For this reason, in Medellín, during the night of January 31, 2026, the people who entered the stadium expected to see him again, closer. Such was the reason that the young Argentine striker Mateo Silvetti (20 years old) said that playing on the Miami team, alongside Lionel, makes many things easy and that for him he has been a mentor who advises him to improve.
Messi’s presence also excited rivals like David Ospina, who assured that he has always enjoyed facing him and that we must take advantage of the fact that he is still valid in football at almost 39 years old; while William Tesillo added that, although he no longer runs like before, he is now more intelligent, creates spaces and almost always does what he wants on the field. Messi, furthermore, is a mass phenomenon. Miami knew it and Medellín confirmed it.
