The Lionel Messi injury issue at Inter Miami is a little perplexing. The squad continues to claim that he can participate, but he never shows up. This Saturday’s vital Major League Soccer (MLS) encounter against New York City FC, which has significant implications for both teams in the MLS playoffs, saw the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner left out of the starting lineup. Messi’s injury has not been publicly confirmed as being serious by Inter Miami.
About 45 minutes prior to the Saturday game, the team made the announcement that Messi wouldn’t be participating. Concerns arise since the 36-year-old superstar has now missed four of Inter Miami’s last five games and another match for Argentina during that time. Both the club and the national team have attributed his absences to weariness. He only appeared in one game during this time period, a 37-minute contest against Toronto on September 20. It is thought that hamstring problems caused him to leave the game just before halfway.
Many supporters have complained about the lack of transparency regarding Messi’s condition on social media. Around Saturday afternoon, a post previewing the NYCFC game received feedback like “Post and don’t make fools of your fans” and “Can you all be clear about what’s happening with Messi?”
The situation with Messi is not the only problem the squad has been dealing with lately. Inter Miami just announced a considerable price hike for each section of season tickets for the upcoming campaign. Prices are projected to increase by 82% ($485 to $884) in the area where Inter Miami’s fervent supporters sit in 2024. This year’s announced pricing for some midfield tickets will climb by almost 98% (from $1,333 to $2,635), while other supporters were warned to anticipate increases of over 100%. The highest season ticket prices listed for the upcoming season exceed $40,000, and that doesn’t even include suites.
Price increases were undoubtedly anticipated; Messi will receive an average salary of over $50 million per year over the course of his 2.5-year contract; this doesn’t even take into account the sums paid by Inter Miami this year to sign Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, two other notable midfielders who are currently out injured.
It is also evident that the team is taking advantage of new revenue streams. It comes as no surprise that Messi’s shirt is the most popular one in the league this year, according to information released by MLS on Friday. The top 25 best-selling jerseys on mlsstore.com, which were not accompanied by sales figures, have Messi at number one, Busquets at number 13, and Josef Martinez of Inter Miami at number 21.
Messi and Busquets didn’t even sign with Inter Miami until July; this figure covers all sales made on the website from January 1 through the present. Messi was not present on Saturday, thus Inter Miami entered the game with a 1-2-1 record since their signings. The squad has a 29-12 record when Messi is on the field and a 12-10 record when he is not since signing the world-famous player.
