MLS may move All-Star game to accommodate Messi

MLS has already begun to organize its classic summer match in which the league’s biggest stars come together to face an opponent that is invited for the occasion. Teams such as Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, Juventus or Arsenal have faced the MLS All Star in recent years.

As revealed by Miami journalist Lizzy Becherano, several sources confirm that this year’s opponent will be a team made up of the best players from Liga MX, the domestic Mexican league, repeating the opposition of the 2021 and 2022 editions. Becherano has also anticipated that it will be held in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, July 24.

Will Messi play in the MLS All-Star game?

Names such as Benteke, Riqui Puig or Hugo Lloris will be big attractions ahead of a clash that, despite being a pre-season friendly, always provokes a certain spice due to of the eternal debate as to which league is the best. This year, however, the spotlight will be on just one player: Leo Messi.

As has happened in most of the previous years, the MLS All Star match is organised to take place at the beginning of August, but this time things are different: the date has been moved forward, as it was last year. This new date is much kinder regarding Messi’s the tight schedule which could see him end up playing both the final of the Copa América (July 15) shortly before starting the Olympic Games, which begin 11 days later (26 July). Putting the MLS All-Star game in the middle of those two dates would make it possible for Messi to be there.

Although nothing has been confirmed yet, everything seems to point to the fact that MLS is looking for an ideal moment for its biggest star to be part of the game that unites all fans across the US. Messi is an international symbol that has enhanced soccer like nobody before, and MLS cannot miss another opportunity to put their showpiece player on the biggest stage of them all.