Lionel Messi is now enjoying a momentous time in his career. Just last year, he won the World Cup with Argentina, and then he joined MLS club Inter Miami in a historic transfer. And now the Argentine has won a historic 8th Ballon d’Or.
Since then, tributes have flown in for the player, from his fans all over the world and many of his teammates and former teammates. Adidas has also done a unique tribute to their best ever athlete, and now his club teammates at Inter Miami have done something similar.
Inter Miami celebrates Lionel Messi and his eighth Ballon d’Or win with a golden ‘8’
Lionel Messi has already received much love from Inter Miami since his arrival this summer. The fans, his teammates, and even the co-owner, David Beckham, have all sang high praise for him. And now that Messi has become the first player from the MLS—in fact, the first player outside Europe—to win a Ballon d’Or, he has more appreciation.
The captain of the team has already returned to training, despite the club missing the playoff spots for the MLS Cup. As he returned to the squad, his teammates all embraced him. They gave a simple but thoughtful gift, that of a cutout of the number ‘8’ in gold color. It signified the number of Ballon d’Ors he won and it was signed by all his teammates at the club.
Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender even said while presenting, “To the best player in the world. Already signed by all the players. Thank you Leo. Congratulations again, Ocho.” Ocho means eight in Spanish.
It was certainly a great gesture from his teammates, and even the club changed their profile picture on their social media handles to reflect the historic 8th Ballon d’or win.
Inter Miami axes Lionel Messi’s China tour plans
While Lionel Messi returned to training, fans were expecting that the team would soon be in action for their China tour. They were scheduled to play against Chinese Super League sides Qingdao Hainiu and Chengdu Rongcheng on November 5 and 8. Later the November 8 match was scrapped and the first match’s venue was changed. There were concerns it could be altogether called off.
And now just that has happened, as the the tour event has been cancelled due to issues with the promoters of the event. The club itself confirmed this in a statement on their website, “The tour promoter, NSN, has informed Inter Miami CF of the cancellation of its China Tour due to unforeseen circumstances in China. Inter Miami’s ambition remains to expand its global reach by playing in front of incredible fans from across the globe; the Club will continue to explore future opportunities with NSN to achieve this goal.”
As the tour has been cancelled, fans would have to wait until the next MLS season to watch Lionel Messi play again in club football. The new season could start in January or February of next year, and he is only expected to play in 2 more international games with Argentina.
If Miami does find new friendly matches to play, we could see the Argentine legend play again. Until then, his fans would have to wait and enjoy their Ballon d’Or win.
