If things had been different, Lionel Messi would’ve returned to Barcelona and one of the most romantic of football stories would’ve had its happy ending.
As it turned out, Barca couldn’t offer the player or his family the guarantees he sought and, rather than seeing a replication of what happened two years ago when the club dropped a bomb at the last-minute and told Messi he would have to leave rather than sign his new contract, he took matters into his own hands and decided to sign for Inter Miami.
It’s a real coup for David Beckham, particularly as his former Barca team-mate, Sergio Busquets, has also recently signed for the MLS outfit.
A lot was made of the fact that Apple and Adidas were involved in the deal to bring the Argentinian World Cup winner to the States, but super agent, Jon Smith, believes this is just the start of such creative deals taking place.
‘Lionel Messi’s transfer to Inter Miami was interesting timing because I went to a memorial service for my dear friend, Alberto Vermi, recently and in attendance was Messi’s business partner, someone in the corporate world who was one of the people behind this transaction,’ he wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffside column.
‘It’s fertile territory where clubs could absolutely look at creating funding opportunities through corporate sponsorship. Don’t forget that they’ve been doing this in MLS for a few years now, so it’s taking that model and expanding it. I think that it’s a model that will be enhanced over the coming years.‘
Though supporters who are used to a more traditional business practice for signing players are unlikely to be impressed by the knowledge that corporations are muscling in for financial gain, that’s an antiquated view to hold.
Football has been changing for decades now, and given the multi-million pound salaries that the top players command, a deal such as Messi’s is likely to become the norm in years to come as Smith noted.