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Lionel Messi: TIME100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026
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Messi mania endures. When Lionel Messi signed with Inter Miami of Major League Soccer in 2023, skeptics wondered if he was just playing out his string in the U.S., as other international greats (David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney) had done before. Messi, however, took the U.S. by storm, going on a goal-scoring tear upon his arrival, causing surges in MLS attendance and viewership, and ultimately turning Inter Miami from a cellar dweller into the 2025 MLS Cup champs: he had two assists in Inter’s 3-1 win over Vancouver and was named MVP of the match. Now, another World Cup, perhaps his last one, awaits Messi, 38, in his adopted home. He stamped his legacy at the last World Cup, in Qatar in 2022, when he won his first title and was named best player of the tournament. Back-to-back championships for Argentina—no country has achieved that since Brazil with Pelé in 1958 and 1962—would somehow send Messi even higher into the stratosphere and resolve the GOAT debate once and for all.
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LEGACY: Messi-mania – How World Cup winner Leo cracked America ahead of 2026 swansong
This is Legacy, GOAL’s feature and podcast series that counts down to the 2026 World Cup. Each week, we explore the stories and the spirit behind the nations that define the world’s game. This week, we dive into the rise of the Lionel Messi in the United States, the emotional connection that transformed Miami, his seismic impact on U.S. soccer, and the possibility that the upcoming World Cup might offer him the most fitting stage of his career – one built around comfort, belonging, and a crowd that treats him like their own hero.
The sun beats heavily over the highway that borders the DRV PNK Stadium. It’s noon in Fort Lauderdale and the air vibrates as if someone had placed an invisible iron over the asphalt. Cars drive by with loud music, many with sky-blue and white flags stuck to their windows. On the nearby walls, Lionel Messi’s murals are already part of the landscape: One shows him wearing Inter Miami’s pink jersey, another in the sky-blue and white Argentina shirt lifting the World Cup. Reggaeton plays in the bars, where it’s enough for someone to mention the word ‘Messi’ for a smile, a comment, or a ‘Vamos Argentina!’ to appear. This is Miami.
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