Nashville SC boss Mike Jacobs: Lionel Messi arrival is ‘tremendous for MLS’

Nashville SC will face Inter Miami in the Leagues Cup final on Saturday, a chance to be crowned the inaugural champions of the expanded competitions.

The ‘Boys In Gold’ sit in fourth position in the MLS Eastern Conference and have impressed in recent fixtures, cruising past Liga MX side CF Monterrey in the semi-final. Now in the final they meet a Lionel Messi-inspired Inter Miami, who have looked reborn since the arrival of their mid-season signings.

Messi has dominated this tournament since his arrival in Miami, scoring ten goals in six games as Inter Miami have surged to the Leagues Cup final. Miami currently sit bottom of the Eastern Conference but they are a totally different proposition to the team that Nashville beat 2-1 back in May.

Ahead of Saturday’s final Nashville general manager Mike Jacobs spoke to MLS about the impact that Messi’s arrival has had on the visibility of the league.

“What’s happened with the addition of Messi and obviously some other really special players is tremendous for our league, the visibility of our players, our teams,” Jacobs said on Wednesday.

Looking ahead to the final, Jacobs said: “Nashville SC will play in front of more people than in our club’s history and that wouldn’t have happened this weekend had Messi not come to our league. So I think that’s tremendous.”

MVP Hany Mukhtar to meet Messi for the first time

In their three seasons in MLS Nashville have made it to the playoffs every year and look set to make it to the post-season once again. Their story has been one of gradual growth, best exampled by the development of reigning MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar into one of the league’s most influential attacking talents.

“We’ve always tried to identify players maybe who had not become stars prior to coming here,” Jacobs explained. “We’re really proud of the fact that where Hany [Mukhtar] and Walker [Zimmerman] are household names in Major League Soccer, they really didn’t ascend to where they are right now until they came to Nashville.”

“I like the idea of describing it as as an evolution. I do think it’s evolved and changed with the players we were able to add,” Jacobs continued.

“From year one, putting together a team that we thought could be competitive, maybe stingy defensively and take our chances when it came, to adding attacking pieces each year and kind of layering on to that, to be able to create a dynamic and versatile type of attack that can score a bunch of different ways.”

Mukhtar has scored 13 goals from midfield in 23 MLS games so far this season. On Saturday he will go head-to-head against seven-time Ballon D’Or winner Lionel Messi as he team go in search of a first trophy in club history.