Argentina’s famous person Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates have been feted by US President Donald Trump on the White Home on Thursday in honour of their 2025 MLS Cup championship.
Messi was on the forefront as Miami gamers, coach Javier Mascherano and group co-owner Jorge Más flanked Trump, who opened proceedings with feedback on army motion within the Center East.
However he quickly acquired all the way down to the group’s 2025 exploits and rememiniscences of Brazilian icon Pelé’s Nineteen Seventies stint with the New York Cosmos and its electrifying impact on soccer in america.
“I should not say this as a result of I am previous, however I watched Pelé play,” Trump stated. “I do not know, you [Messi] could also be higher than Pelé. Pelé was fairly good.”
The gamers got here bearing presents for Trump, together with a quantity 47 jersey from the group’s signature pink package, reflecting his standing because the nation’s forty seventh president.
From Trump there have been shout-outs to Miami’s Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez, rising star Tadeo Allende, and Rodrigo De Paul – who the Republican chief difficult on his seems – and a delicate dig at former US president Joe Biden.
“It is my distinct privilege to say what no American president has ever had the prospect to say earlier than: Welcome to the White Home, Lionel,” Trump stated, an indirect reference to the very fact Messi didn’t attend the ceremony when Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2025, citing scheduling conflicts.
Trump revelled in receiving a VIP his predecessor couldn’t.
“I’ve seen a whole lot of nice gamers come into the world of sports activities,” Trump stated. “They arrive to the Yankees or they arrive to the Dodgers… and there is such a clamour.
“All the things’s nice, however they do not win. This man received,” he stated with a gesture towards Messi.
“Leo, you got here in and also you received. There’s much more stress placed on you than anybody would know since you’re type of anticipated to win,” Trump added.
Trump’s rundown of Miami’s 2025 achievements included not solely their 3-1 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps within the MLS Cup closing but additionally their 2-1 victory over Portuguese facet Porto within the FIFA Membership World Cup, which marked the primary time a North American group beat a European one in official competitors.
In accepting Trump’s congratulations, Más – the son of Cuban immigrants – stated Miami’s rise since its 2020 inaugural season was primarily based on the philosophy that “for those who work onerous and also you sacrifice and also you dream, it may be doable.”
Inter Miami’s world success is “not solely due to Lionel Messi, however these males standing behind you could have modified the tradition of soccer in america of America eternally,” Más stated. “We are able to play with the large boys.”
Presidents have welcomed champions for many years to capitalize on the profitable optics. However Messi’s go to stands aside as he’s lengthy prevented presidential visits, and sports activities media speculated for days whether or not he’d really go this time.
When Argentina received the World Cup in 2022 — Messi’s crowning second — the group ghosted Peronist chief Alberto Fernández, who invited all of them to have a good time from balcony of the Casa Rosada presidential palace.
Messi even dodged Fernández’s minister as he descended from the aircraft in Buenos Aires, shielded by his entourage. Argentina’s victory parade acquired so chaotic in Buenos Aires, with thousands and thousands of followers, that Messi and others needed to be airlifted by helicopters.
Even Argentina’s present President Javier Milei, who’s a prime Trump ally in Latin America, can’t get a selfie with the nation’s most well-known man, with 512 million Instagram followers. Even after praising Messi in an occasion they each attended final November in Miami, Milei left with out the photograph any nationwide politician would transfer mountains to make occur.
To make sure, Messi is in an ungainly spot in Argentina a number of months earlier than what stands to be his closing World Cup when the Albiceleste performs within the US.
Milei is publicly bashing Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia, the pinnacle of the nation’s highly effective soccer affiliation generally known as AFA, who’s been loyal to Messi. Milei and Tapia have been at odds for years as Milei needs to privatise the possession buildings of Argentina’s membership groups, an overhaul AFA opposes. Messi hasn’t commented on that state of affairs.
Tapia can be beneath investigation in Argentina over corruption allegations linked to an opulent property with a helipad exterior of Buenos Aires. Final December, he declared annual earnings of about US$584,000 from a number of roles he holds. Tensions have flared a lot between the 2 that Milei determined to not present as much as Trump’s World Cup occasion in Washington final December as a result of Tapia was going too.
Messi has crossed paths with world leaders, however usually solely at World Cup video games and never at presidential palaces. He did go along with the nationwide squad in 2014 to satisfy then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner after the group misplaced within the closing towards Germany.
– TIMES/AFP/BLOOMBERG
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