Lionel Messi makes his Miami homecoming with Argentina: ‘For us this is a chance to celebrate him’

Argentina fans gather in Miami ahead of their knockout round match against Cape Verde. Photograph: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters Take a walk around Miami’s Little Buenos Aires neighborhood, and nearly everyone there will tell you a story about meeting Lionel Messi. There’s the bakery employee, working at the counter, who will tell you about Messi’s visitthere and how much the Inter Miami and Argentina captain enjoyed the medialunas. Down the street, someone at the coffee shop will talk of spotting Messi in traffic, behind the wheel of a luxury SUV. Messi, that person and others will tell you, will flash you a wide smile as he waits for the signal to change, and might even entertain the idea of an autograph. And of course there are the people who will claim to have intersected with the Argentine legend at Publix, the local supermarket chain. That will feel farcical, of course, until that same person produces a selfie. You see Messi smiling there, posing alongside a fan in the cereal aisle. It will feel like AI, but it isn’t. Related: ‘Nothing is impossible’: Cape Verde relishing World Cup date with Argentina Three years after shocking the football world with a move to Major League Soccer, Messi’s status as a Miami everyman (at least as much as he can be) and his deity-like reputation for his country will collide on Friday night when Argentina faces Cape Verde at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. The match will be a homecoming for Messi, who arrived in the image-obsessed city in 2023 as just another megacelebrity and has since been welcomed wholeheartedly as something approaching a native son – undoubtedly the most at home he’s felt since his days in Barcelona. “For us this is just a chance to celebrate him,” says 27-year-old Thiago Gomez, in Spanish. He is quick to identify himself as an Inter Miami season ticket holder. “It’s nice to have him here [every day] but it is something different entirely to see him play for the national team … you get the sense that he loves playing for Miami but he’s clearly possessed right now with Argentina, with the World Cup, with all of it.” Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami was scarcely believable. He was arguably the world’s greatest-ever player and the most recognizable human being on the planet to boot. The move was less about football – though Messi left it clear that that was still a priority – and more about family and privacy. He’d just navigated a pair of nightmarish years at PSG, seasons that took a toll on Messi and his wife and children alike. Inter Miami offered him a chance to continue his career, make them a priority, and take just the slightest step out of the global spotlight. In doing so, he joined a long list of footballers who took refuge from prying eyes in the United States: Pelé. George Best. Johan Cruyff. Thierry Henry. David Beckham. The list goes on. While anonymity was an option for some of them – Henry managed to take the train to the stadium on some days – a total disappearance was never an option for the Argentine. He is adored globally and in Miami, with it’s massive South and Central American population, Messi was always going to be under the microscope. And so it was initially, with media stalking his every move and fans waiting patiently outside Inter Miami’s training facility in hopes of getting a mere glimpse of him. Things were even more insane on the road, where fans would stalk the team’s hotel or follow its bus to the stadium. Messi was spotted at restaurants, at NBA games and upscale shopping malls. Sighting him became a sport. By 2026, that dynamic has disappeared almost entirely. A handful of fans – mostly children – still pursue him but by and large Messi’s life in Miami has entered some semblance of normalcy. In the three years, he has brought the city a championship and has spoken publicly about his affection for the place and how he’s been treated there. Miami will never be Barcelona, where Messi is a prodigal son and spent the bulk of his formative footballing years, or Argentina, where he is revered. But Miami has won a meaningful and significant chunk of the Argentine’s heart as well, something he does not hide. Nobody could teach Inter Miami anything about marketing, and the club has made its signature pink a staple in its home city, with thousands sporting Messi shirts every day. On Wednesday evening, those splashes of color were joined by a tidal wave of blue and white as Messi’s Argentina touched down in Miami, along with all of its fans. The defending champions have been more well-represented than any other team at the tournament (with the exception of its three host nations, perhaps) and its fans have turned stadiums in Kansas City and Dallas into a non-stop party. On Thursday evening, Buenos Aires Bakery & Cafe was overrun with locals and visitors sporting the albiceleste. The eatery sits smack on the middle of the four or five-block collection of businesses some call Little Buenos Aires, just off the A1A in North Beach. Cumbia and Argentine rock music played in the background as Argentina fans reviewed their side’s prospects for the next day’s game. Most locals here could only dream of attending the match in person and the bakery is prepared to host many of them, providing they pay a $20 cover and spend at least $15, far from the normal policy where some customers camp out for hours with a single cup of coffee and a newspaper. Five miles down Collins Avenue, in South Beach, another throng of Argentina fans gather in front of Baires, an Argentine steakhouse. No fan of the country’s national team would need any help professing their love for Messi, but a crew of locals has clearly been pushed along by several bottles of wine, as they’d wandered up from the Argentine banderazo – the large pre-match rally that gathers many of the team’s traveling support. It has been a long, but celebratory day. The conversation mostly centers around Messi’s exploits in the group stage — six goals in three games has made him the tournament’s top scorer thus far and earned him the all-time goalscoring record in World Cup play as well. Fans in Miami will have ample opportunity to watch Messi in pink. Earlier this year, he signed a contract extension that will potentially keep him attached to the team through the end of the 2028 season. The chance they have this week – to watch the greatest player in the history of the sport take the pitch at a World Cup in his adopted home – is something much more rare, something every Argentine fan in Miami seems deeply aware of.