In a joint interview with Sport and Mundo Deportivo, Leo Messi announced that after finishing his contract with PSG, his destination would be Inter Miami. The MLS has been one of the choices for footballers who no longer have a bellows for Europe to go there for their golden retirement for a few years: less competitiveness, a quieter life, easier to shine, and a healthy cash to collect.
However, let Messi come, one of the best players of all time, if not the best, with the World Cup just in his bag, gives another dimension to this signing.
And for Apple, this move is an unexpected success.
Apple cae of magpie
Just one year ago, June 2022, Apple announced that it had acquired the broadcast rights to MLS for ten years, from 2023 to 2032. This is a minor competition within the soccer universe, far behind the major European leagues, but at the same time a young competition that has been growing.
One year later, Apple receives this award for its commitment to the MLS, whose investment was 2,500 million dollars for the entire agreement, at 250 kilos per season. To put it in context, the value of LaLiga per season is four times higher only in Spain, regardless of international agreements. Apple secured the rights from MLS for global broadcasting.
Image: Xataka.
The signing of Messi has been brewing for a long time, when rumors began about the interest of David Beckham’s club in taking over Leo. But there are many more factors that help to understand this collective movement between club, player, competition… and Apple.
According to ‘The Athletic’, a percentage of the subscriptions that Apple TV+ gets to its MLS package will go to Messi’s pocket
Messi admitted to having had offers from several European teams, but the two main ones that came to light were from Inter Miami, and from Saudi Arabia, which, according to what was leaked, offered him $1.5 billion for three seasons. 500 million a year, a huge figure that leaves behind the 200 million that Ronaldo or Benzema supposedly earn each season in Arabia.
Miami’s offer, as published by the Argentine journalist Pablo Stecco, “only” reaches 40 million dollars per course, but there is much more than a salary at stake. According to The Athletic, the complete offer includes an undisclosed percentage of the new registrations that Apple TV + achieves for its MLS subscription package. Apple has in fact already announced a five-episode docuseries about the star.
Adidas, sponsor of Messi since 2006 and also of the MLS —all his clubs use this brand—, has been involved in the negotiation: finally the club where Messi plays wears his logo on the chest, after two decades wearing soccer jerseys. Nike. Something that has earned him to offer Messi another percentage of the extra income that Adidas achieves from now on.
Lastly, he has been offered the chance to buy a franchise when he finishes his stage as a player. This was Beckham’s master move that Messi may end up replicating.
the beckham mirror
When the Englishman was already 32 years old and was saying goodbye to the highest elite, he accepted an offer from the MLS to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. At that time he would “only” earn 6.5 million per season, a figure much lower than what he had been earning up to then, but he added a clause whereby he would enter a percentage of what the club billed since his arrival, in any concept, whether it was ticketing, sponsorships or catering during matches.
Of the 33 million that he was going to earn as a player, the bill shot up to more than 250 million dollars by the time he retired. And he didn’t stop there. He bought the fledgling Inter Miami franchise for $25 million, which didn’t officially start play until 2020, and now It has multiplied its value by twenty with respect to what Beckham paid to get itfruit of the growth of the competition.
Perhaps this is how it is understood that Messi’s choice, regardless of the quality of life in one city or another or the opinion of his family, does not necessarily imply that he is going to lose money compared to the Saudi offer.
Especially if we take into account that We are not only talking about the future franchise, but also about the percentages charged to Adidas and Apple for the boost that it can give to the competition, and that both would capitalize.
And an audience on the rise with a view to the World Cup
Soccer in the United States is the fourth sport after hockey, basketball and baseball… and according to ESPN sources confirmed to us, some LaLiga matches have more viewers than baseball ones. The MLS, traditionally, fills the stadiums, but it does not have as much pull in television audience.
In addition, although soccer has not been especially interesting for the American public, the Latino population adds up to 62 million inhabitants in this country, more than the inhabitants of all of Spain. Culturally, this is a tempting group for the football industry, and indeed the great base of LaLiga’s growth there.
The agreement with Apple and the arrival of Messi can make this aspect grow, but above all it can further leverage the effect of the 2026 World Cup, that will be held between the United States, Mexico and Canada; but whose final, whose venue is yet to be decided, will be played in the first. Los Angeles, New York and Dallas are fighting to host it.
This event, for which there are only three years left, will be the opportunity to consolidate to soccer, which began to permeate little by little since 1994, when the World Cup was played there that year. The choice of Messi, in a business key, may also have a part of his motivation here: he arrives in the prelude to the peak moment of world football. If he does well, Messi can replicate Beckham’s move… and Apple get the stream of subscriptions to pay off his investment.
Featured Image | GTRES / Jolly Victor / ABACA.
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