By Sean Gregory/ Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
THAT THIS MOMENT UNFOLDED, ON JULY 21, 2023, in Fort Lauderdale still feels surreal. Lionel Messi, in his first game wearing a pink Inter Miami jersey, was awarded a free kick in the final seconds of his Major League Soccer (MLS) debut. Here was the greatest living soccer player, arguably the best to ever play the world’s most popular game, who last year led Argentina to its first World Cup win in nearly four decades, suiting up for a last-place club in the U.S.
Before the kick, Inter Miami defender DeAndreD Yedlin, who played in that same
D World Cup for the U.S., went to the sideline with a cramp in his right calf. He cautioned his coach, Gerardo “Tata” Martino, against selecting him to take a penalty kick after regulation inevitably ended in a 1-1 draw between Inter Miami and Cruz Azul at the Leagues Cup, a tournament featuring teams from MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX. Martino, who was familiar with Messi’s magic from managing him for Argentina and FC Barcelona, told Yedlin not to worry: Messi was going to put this shot in the back of the net and end the game. “I was like, OK,” says Yedlin, not at all convinced.
Messi placed the ball on the grass. Kim Kardashian and LeBron James were in the crowd that night, but not a soul was looking at them. The ball left Messi’s left foot, and as the shot began to curl around a wall of a half-dozen Cruz Azul players, Yedlin, who was standing on the field behind Messi, spread his arms in a victory pose. “You know when you can just feel something?” says Yedlin. Messi’s shot continued bending, bending, past the outstretched arms of the diving Cruz Azul goalkeeper, sending the 20,000-plus fans at DRV PNK Stadium—and millions more watching around the world—into absolute hysterics. Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham was moved to tears. “I remember getting in the car on the way back, and I said to Victoria, ‘I’m not even sure I can drive home,’” Beckham tells TIME. “You couldn’t have written it better. It was for MLS, and for America. It was for the future of the game.”
Few could have imagined this scene—the pink sea of fans losing their minds over their new local sensation—seven months earlier as Messi kissed the World Cup trophy, finally securing the ultimate prize that had long eluded him. Messi finished his 2022–2023 club season, for Paris St.-Germain (PSG), with 21 goals and 20 assists across
