Club World Cup team guide – Inter Miami: Messi's star power, slow start for Mascherano

New York Times

13 hours ago

The inaugural Club World Cup starts on June 14, with its 32 teams split into eight groups of four in the opening phase.
As part of our guides to the sides that will feature in the tournament, Felipe Cardenas gives you the background on Inter Miami.
This is year five of Inter Miami's existence as a professional football club. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based team has been both the laughing stock of MLS and the premier club of North America's top flight. It has been a topsy-turvy start for David Beckham's pet project.
Inter Miami enters the Club World Cup with battered hopes and a bruised ego following a difficult start to the 2025 MLS season. Captain and global football icon Lionel Messi will lead an underperforming squad into the tournament that hopes to advance out of Group A, which includes Porto from Portugal, Brazil's Palmeiras and Egyptian side Al Ahly.
A place in this first playing of the expanded Club World Cup is a dream come true for Miami's owners, but will the tournament fulfil their wishes or turn into a nightmare experience?
Since Messi's arrival in July 2023, Miami has tasted some competitive success while becoming a commercial behemoth in the U.S. The 2022 World Cup winner's presence has helped Miami become one of the most valuable clubs in MLS, currently valued at $1.19billion (£878m), according to a May report by Sportico. Messi's first full year saw Miami win the MLS Supporters' Shield, the trophy that goes to the team which earns the most points in the regular season.
In that 2024 season, under former manager Tata Martino, Miami also set a new league record for points earned (74) in a campaign that crowned Messi as the league MVP. The year ended on a sour note, however, when they were eliminated by Atlanta United in the first round of the MLS title playoffs. Martino abruptly resigned due to personal reasons and Miami hired Messi's long-time friend and former Barcelona and Argentina team-mate Javier Mascherano as head coach.
After a hot start to 2025, Mascherano's side has struggled to play consistently well, and aside from an over-reliance on Messi, who turns 38 this month, the team is devoid of a tactical identity.
Funny you should ask.
FIFA's convoluted qualification criteria handed Miami a ticket to the big dance. Miami didn't win the MLS Cup final to be crowned its champions, and hasn't come close to winning the Concacaf Champions Cup, either. But FIFA has always reserved one host slot for the Club World Cup, even before the competition was expanded to 32 teams from seven and moved from being an annual event to one staged every four years.
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When Miami won that Supporters' Shield at the close of last year's regular season, FIFA president Gianni Infantino had the loophole he needed to invite Messi and company to this summer's competition in the United States.
'Miami loves football. The world loves football, and the world loves Miami,' Infantino said from Miami's home pitch last October. 'You're the best team of the season in America,' Infantino added. 'You can start telling your story to the world.'
Miami will also open the tournament, against Al Ahly at 65,000-capacity Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens next Saturday night. If Infantino was dead-set on having Messi in this first edition of the new-look Club World Cup, he succeeded. How Miami fares in it is another story.
The side is short on depth and the ageing legs of Messi and his former Barcelona team-mates Luis Suarez (38), Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba (both 36) won't be enough to make a deep run, even if Miami advances from the group stage.
Give the ball to Messi and hope he creates a moment of magic.
That sounds cynical, but unsurprisingly, everything goes through the Argentine No 10. And one can't blame his team-mates, if we're being honest. Messi remains highly effective around the penalty area and decisive when it matters most. He finished the 2024 MLS season with 21 goals and 17 assists (including the playoffs), but ran out of gas against Atlanta in the post-season.
Miami wants to press high and force opponents to play narrowly. When it comes together, Miami can be formidable in transition. The problem is with the back line and overall defensive structure. Miami leaks goals and tends to play so open that a spell of good play is consistently undone by poor defending.
It wouldn't be a shock to see Mascherano dial back the high press and play a more pragmatic style in this competition.
Mascherano is in his first job as a professional head coach.
Before succeeding Martino in November, he had managed Argentina's under-20 and under-23 men's squads, and also coached Argentina's team at the 2024 Olympics, losing to hosts France in the quarterfinals. That was considered a massive disappointment, which led to widespread criticism of Mascherano's acumen as a manager.
Having played under both at Barcelona, Mascherano has spoken publicly about his appreciation of Pep Guardiola's tactics and how Luis Enrique influenced him as both a player and a coach. Still, there is little evidence to suggest Mascherano's philosophy will resemble that of an elite coach. His close relationship with Messi, Suarez, Busquets and Alba suggests he was given the job for reasons other than his resumé.
'People can have their opinion, and those opinions are valid, clearly,' he said in December. 'But I'm convinced that I'm qualified to coach this team. I'm very excited to do so. Experience in football doesn't always make sense.'
Less than three weeks from turning 38 years old, Messi doesn't have the same burst off the dribble that saw him embarrass defenders throughout the pitch when he played for Barcelona. These days, he tends to position himself as close to the goal as possible, where he can create and finish plays without expending too much energy.
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But late-stage Messi is still a joy to watch, even if purists may want to hold onto memories of his dominant 20-year run as the world's best player rather than see him carrying an MLS team. He still walks about the pitch and sometimes stands motionless as the game goes on around him. Today, Messi picks his moments more cautiously than ever.
'Leo has turned into a complete player who plays all over the field,' Mascherano told The Athletic last year. 'When you have a player like that, the most important thing is to give him the freedom to move where he believes the team needs him and for his team-mates to understand his movements.'
Messi has grown increasingly frustrated with Miami's up-and-down form, though. Many of his young team-mates struggle to match his advanced football IQ, which has irritated this winner of 10 La Liga titles, three Champions Leagues, two Copas America and the most recent World Cup three years ago — more so when the team loses games. His patience is thinner, as well, with MLS referees taking the brunt of Messi's anger.
This Club World Cup could be a breaking point.
Venezuela international Telasco Segovia is Miami's young player to watch. The 22-year-old attacking midfielder is a goal threat with a high ceiling. Segovia was signed this winter after spending two seasons in Portugal with Casa Pia. He has quickly become one of Miami's key players and an on-field ally of Messi and striker Suarez.
Segovia is a versatile player, which allows him to roam the midfield and attacking areas and contribute both in possession and in transition. He tends to make the right decisions around the opponent's penalty area and is not shy about taking his chances. There's a maturity to him that stands out.
On a team of veteran superstars who have won nearly everything in football, Segovia's self-confidence and clean technical play have been a boon for Miami.
He's a regular for Venezuela's national team, but if he performs at a high level at the Club World Cup, the competition could be the showcase Segovia needs to reach his full potential.
In-state rivals Orlando City can be considered Miami's rivals, but the truth is, every team Messi and company face plays with a knife between its teeth. Miami has become both a media darling and a hated club by rival MLS supporters.
That's a sign that things are going as planned in South Florida, though. With Messi and his mates, Miami has sold out huge NFL stadiums and other neutral venues. Messi fans have run onto the pitch to take a selfie with him. On the road, opposing teams' supporters have congregated outside Miami's team hotel, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Argentine superstar.
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All of that attention has turned Miami into an MLS villain, a nemesis that fans outside of Fort Lauderdale enjoy watching suffer. I don't think Miami would have it any other way. 'A lot of people are jealous of Inter Miami,' club managing owner Jorge Mas told FDP Radio in April.
Enough said.
Miami has plenty of detractors, but Messi boasts legions of fans worldwide. The team's pink kit is seen across the globe these days, and Messi, even in the twilight of his career, still conjures emotions and fanfare usually reserved for a mega pop star.
Miami won't be a favorite at this tournament. We've established that. But the presence of Messi will bring eyeballs to FIFA's new baby. Neutrals will tune in to see if he still has any magic left in him. Romantics will watch in the hope he'll turn back the clock to November and December of 2022, when he finally led Argentina to World Cup glory.
And that's precisely what Infantino had in mind when he gave them that hosts' spot.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Kelsea Petersen)