Using’s Messi’s fast start for Inter Miami to criticize the quality of MLS play ignores the greatness of what he has accomplished throughout his 30s.
Technically, Lionel Messi has yet to play his first MLS regular season game. The Argentine star’s first three matches for Inter Miami have come in the Leagues Cup, the competition that is a new joint venture between MLS and Liga MX that includes all 47 teams from the combined leagues.
But with five goals and an assist inside in his first three appearances, there is already a segment of the soccer-watching population using his stellar performances to attack the quality of his new league.
The general crux of it goes like this: If Messi comes to MLS at age 36 near the end of his career and immediately dominates, it shows MLS has a long way to go to be taken seriously.
That makes sense within the parameters of conventional logic, which suggests players who are 36 are usually a shadow of their former selves. The problem with Messi — as is the case with most singularly great athletes — is that he defies those assumptions.
Messi is not the same player as he was for FC Barcelona in his mid 20s. But he is far more effective relative to his prime than most 36-year-old players, and his prime was better than pretty much anyone else who has ever played the sport.
He’s less than a year removed from winning the Golden Ball at the 2022 FIFA World Cup as the tournament’s best player.
