INTER MIAMI
The love story between Lionel Messi and Newell’s Old Boys
In the month of Valentine’s Day, Messi will face the team that he supports in a friendly game between Inter Miami and Newell’s Old Boys of Rosario.
After a long tour around the entire globe, Inter Miami return to the tranquility of the state of Florida with one more test before the start of the MLS season. The new campaign, one full of hope, will begin on February 21 for Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino’s side against Real Salt Lake.
There is just one game to go, and it is perhaps the most special for the Argentine star: Messi and Miami will face Newell’s Old Boys, from Rosario, Argentina, the team he loves.
On June 24, 1987, the city of Rosario welcomed a boy who years later would become a football legend, but who was never able to make his professional debut in the city he grew up in.
Messi’s Newell’s ‘dream’
That is why Messi feels that he has a debt to pay to the place that gave him everything and the city he visits when he is on vacation. Messi has never forgotten the idea of one day playing for La Lepra.
“Personally there was always the idea, and even more so after having become world champion, of playing Argentine football. Ever since I started playing at Newell’s when I was little and going to the stadium, it was my dream to play there [for the first team],” the Argentine revealed in September 2023.
“When I was seven or eight years old, I remember going with my dad, my uncle and my brothers. We always went to the stadium. If it wasn’t a very complicated game that could end in trouble, like a Clásico, we would go whenever we could” he acknowledged in an interview with Jorge Valdano in February of last year.
A gesture with Maradona
On November 29, 2020, just four days after the death of Diego Armando Maradona, Messi decided to pay tribute to the former world champion, back when he was still wearing the colours of Barcelona.
“The night before the game I was with Antonela (Rocuzzo) and I told her: ‘I have to do something for [Maradona]...’ I have something of a museum with trophies and t-shirts upstairs, so I went to see what there was. I was looking for a shirt from the National Team or something from him,” Messi admitted. When he scored his first goal after Maradona’s death, he remembered it with an emotional gesture, putting on the famous red and black shirt.
The Argentine found the Newell’s shirt that Maradona wore with in 1993 and decided to wear it to pay tribute to the player. “I don’t know why it was there. I didn’t even remember that I had it,” acknowledged Messi. Inter Miami and Newell’s Old Boys will meet this Thursday, February 15 from the DRV PNK Stadium. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT.