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    Inter Miami copy Barcelona’s strict ‘Lionel Messi rule’ in training which all players must follow

    INTER MIAMI have copied Barcelona’s strict ‘Lionel Messi rule’ which all players must follow in training.The GOAT joined the MLS side this summer following his departure from Paris Saint-Germain.
    Inter Miami’s has copied Barcelona’s ‘Lionel Messi rule’ in trainingCredit: Reuters
    Since Messi’s arrival in July, he has lit up the MLS with Inter Miami – scoring 11 goals in 14 games.
    The 36-year-old has been the prize possession for the club. and led them to their first bit of silverware – the Leagues Cup trophy.
    But the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner was not able to secure his team an MLS Cup play-off spot as they finished the term in 14th place in the Eastern Conference.
    Teammate 19-year-old Edison Azcona has reflected on his time playing with Messi this season.
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    And the midfielder confessed to following a rule that Inter Miami players must abide by to ensure they protect their superstar.
    He explained how the team make sure they avoid injuring Messi during the training sessions.
    Azcona told Infobae: “Everyone understands that we are not going to try to hurt Messi.
    “One tries to defend, but they are a little more careful.
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    “We don’t let him play in the games we play among ourselves, we defend him, but with caution. Nobody gets into it very hard.”
    The MLS club are not the first team to follow this rule – Barcelona too had to protect their star man back in the day.
    The Argentine scored a record-breaking 672 goals in 778 games for the Catalan giants cementing his place among the greatest footballers of all time.
    Nice’s Jean-Clair Todibo played five times for Barcelona and revealed he was one of the players who followed the ‘Lionel Messi rule’ in training.
    Todibo told German outlet Bild: “We all knew that he couldn’t get injured.
    “Messi was defended very carefully in training.
    “I learned a lot from Messi and I even tackled him a few times, but I was careful not to hurt him.” More

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    How Lionel Messi Made a Pink Jersey Soccer’s Must-Have Item

    In the span of three months, the soccer superstar has made Inter Miami’s eye-catching jersey the hottest piece of sports merchandise on the planet.All of a sudden, after a single summer, the pink jersey is everywhere. It has become almost impossible to acquire, yet there it is, paradoxically, on the backs of thousands of fans thronging American stadiums, hanging from market stalls in Buenos Aires and Bangkok, a vivid flash on almost every field where children gather to play soccer in England.That the jersey has become, apparently overnight, the hottest piece of sports merchandise on the planet is a simple, capitalist equation: the result of an irresistible combination of one of the most recognizable and beloved athletes of his generation; a distinctive, exotic color; and the ruthless efficiency of textile factories in Southeast Asia.Somehow, though, few people saw it coming. Tor Southard was better placed than most, but even he was caught unaware. As Adidas’s senior director for soccer in North America, he had been receiving emails from colleagues for nearly a year asking if the company’s biggest star, Lionel Messi, would be joining Inter Miami, also a client of Adidas.As far as he knew, it was just a rumor. Like the rest of the planet, Southard learned it was true only on June 7, the day Messi announced his intentions in a rare interview with two Spanish news outlets.For many, the immediate question was the soccer one. Six months after winning the World Cup with Argentina, why was Messi, the finest player of his generation and arguably the best of all time, leaving the elite clubs and competitions of Europe to join a team that ranked among the worst in the comparative backwater of America’s top league, Major League Soccer?For Southard, and for Adidas, there was a rather more pressing matter. Within a couple of days of Messi’s announcement, the company had received almost 500,000 requests from stores and suppliers for jerseys in Miami’s soft, electric pink. It is a specific fabric and a specific shade: Pantone 1895C. “It’s not like it was white, and we had inventory we could repurpose,” Southard said.Even if they could not foresee quite what a phenomenon the jersey would become, and quite how many people would clamor to get their hands on one, Southard and his colleagues had some sense of what was about to happen.Adidas was going to need more of that fabric. A lot more.‘No. 1 priority’The Adidas flagship store in Manhattan. John Taggart for The New York TimesOn the day Messi announced he would sign for Inter Miami, Adidas had a stock of Inter Miami jerseys in stores and storage facilities around the United States. It did not last. The shirts sold out so quickly that Southard said it seemed the inventory simply “evaporated.”Getting the fabric to make more — and fast — was just the first step. Although Adidas would not start selling official Messi jerseys until his contract was formally signed on July 15, it placed orders for vast rolls of the pink fabric needed to make them within 24 hours of his interview on Spanish television in the first week of June.The risk, of course, was that the deal could still collapse. “It’s a trade-off you make for speed,” Southard said.In ordinary circumstances, retailers order jerseys as many as nine months in advance. Major sportswear brands, like Adidas and Nike, generally prefer to produce large batches of team gear, rather than manufacturing to meet demand, as fast fashion chains tend to do.Given the number of what the industry terms “chase buys” — a sudden influx of orders in unanticipated volumes — for Messi’s Inter Miami jersey, Adidas knew its usual playbook would not work.A lone Messi shirt left in a soccer shop outside Tokyo.Kosuke Okahara for The New York TimesIt had learned that from experience. In 2021, when Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United, one of the handful of retailers Adidas works with, Fanatics, asked for a million more jerseys. A year later, after Messi helped Argentina win the World Cup, Adidas had to produce and ship an extra 400,000 Argentine national team shirts in the span of three months.Getting pink jerseys bearing Messi’s name and No. 10 into the market, Southard said, immediately became Adidas’s “No. 1 priority, globally.”Frisco, Texas.Logan Riely/Getty ImagesTo streamline the process, the company sourced the pink, recycled polyester fabric for the jerseys as close as possible to the factories in Southeast Asia that would make them. Orders for other details like logos and crests were expedited at other facilities, sometimes leapfrogging the production of apparel for other Adidas teams. To cut down on shipping times, the first batches of the Messi jerseys were sent out in small shipments, almost as soon as they came off the production line.The frantic production effort worked. Initially, Adidas had told its retailers to begin selling jerseys with a promise of delivery by Oct. 15. But the first editions arrived in the United States by July 18. They were sent straight to Miami, where demand was highest.They sold out almost instantly.‘Everyone has a hookup’La Paz, Bolivia.Leonardo Fernandez/Getty ImagesOn a street corner in Miami’s wealthy Brickell neighborhood one evening last month, two young men had set up a pop-up Messi store, their racks groaning with Inter Miami jerseys in pink and an alternate version — black with pink trim — that the team wears on the road. This was the work of the imaginatively titled Messi Miami Shop.The name sounds official. The online store looks it, too. It sells two versions of the Messi jersey, as most sportswear manufacturers now do: a “player version” made with high-quality material and an athletic cut, and a “replica” designed for fans whose bodies might not have the precise dimensions of an elite athlete.The Messi Miami Shop is not, though, affiliated in any way with Messi, Inter Miami or Adidas. (It is, though, a shop.) Its jerseys had come, instead, from a contact in Thailand, purchased for $10 apiece. “This is Miami,” one of the sellers said. “Everyone has a hookup.” And a markup: The stall was selling the jerseys at $25 for a children’s edition and as much as $65 for an “authentic” inauthentic adult version of the team’s black jersey.The sellers, who declined to give their names for reasons that should be obvious, had sold around 30 in a couple of hours, they said. But they are not the only ones hustling.A few nights earlier, outside Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Fla., a different group of hawkers were doing their own brisk business in Messi jerseys. Messi was not playing that night — he missed several weeks of the season because of an injury — but Inter Miami was in town, and plenty of fans were prepared to pay $40 for a pink jersey bearing his name, even if it had shoddy stitching and was plucked from a backpack.Despite all of Adidas’s attempts to get its official Messi jerseys into stores as quickly as possible, the clamor for them — any version of them — has proved so great that counterfeits have flooded the global market to meet the shortfall.Though the company says it has now largely caught up with the backlog of orders, it has found that it is still selling jerseys far faster than it can produce them, and not just in the United States.Rio de Janeiro.Dado Galdieri for The New York TimesIn Buenos Aires, where Messi’s status as a national treasure was sealed by victory in the World Cup, there are pink jerseys for sale in store after store and kiosk after kiosk along Calle Florida, one of the Argentine capital’s teeming shopping streets, and in the stalls of the bustling San Telmo Market. At some vendors, the fakes go for about $50.In Europe, where tribal affiliations to local clubs run deep, Miami jerseys are suddenly commonplace. At a training session for elementary school children last month in Manchester, England, the usual concentration of Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool gear was flecked with a half dozen pink Inter Miami jerseys, each bearing Messi’s name.It is difficult to overstate the scale of demand. Official sales have surpassed every benchmark Adidas could have imagined, Southard said: more than the frenzy that accompanied David Beckham’s move to the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007; beyond the rush prompted by Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United in 2021; beyond the clamor for Messi’s Argentina shirt in the aftermath of Qatar 2022.Inter Miami is now the best-selling Adidas soccer jersey in North America, ahead of all five of the storied European clubs that the brand traditionally regards as the crown jewels of its portfolio: Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Arsenal.Since July, Fanatics, which dominates sports apparel in the United States, has sold more Messi jerseys than for any other soccer player, and any athlete at all except the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. No player, in any sport, has ever sold more jerseys on the site in the first 24 hours after switching teams than Messi did in July.The Adidas store in Manhattan.John Taggart for The New York TimesHis cinematic arrival in M.L.S. — with a late game-winning goal in his debut on July 22 — came too late to salvage Inter Miami’s season. The club will miss the playoffs, which start on Wednesday. Messi will not play in pink again until next year.But that has done little to quell his impact. Inter Miami’s games drew record crowds from the moment he arrived. The team’s ticket prices for next season have soared. Adidas is confident that it has enough of the next edition of Messi’s jersey — due out in February — in production to meet demand.For many fans and retailers, it cannot come a moment too soon. The jersey has become so coveted, so scarce, that even Beckham himself — one of the most famous soccer players of his generation, a worldwide celebrity and, as part-owner of Inter Miami, Messi’s boss — has found it hard to get hold of one.More than once, he has wanted to send a pink Messi jersey to a friend or an associate as a gift, only to be told that he will have to wait, just like everyone else.Alan Blinder More

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    Lionel Messi posts gushing Inter Miami tribute after final game as Wags Antonela and Victoria Beckham head out for lunch

    LIONEL MESSI posted a gushing message to Inter Miami after the final game of the season.Meanwhile, his wife went out for a girls lunch with none other than Victoria Beckham.
    Lionel Messi took to Instagram at the end of his first season with Inter MiamiCredit: AFP
    Messi wasted no time in making his mark in the MLSCredit: Getty
    Antonela Roccuzzo, second left, and Victoria Beckham, right, headed out for lunch in MiamiCredit: Instagram
    Messi, 36, joined the MLS side this summer following his release from Paris Saint-Germain.
    And in the three months since his July arrival on a two-and-a-half-year contract in Florida, Messi has inspired the club owned by David Beckham.
    The Argentine superstar scored an injury-time free-kick winner on his debut and then led the team to their first ever trophy, the Leagues Cup.
    In total he has 11 goals in 14 Inter Miami appearances and is unsurprisingly incredibly popular at the DRV PNK Stadium as his first season comes to an end.
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    And he headed to Instagram with a classy message.
    Messi wrote to his 489million followers: “Proud of all the team accomplished this season.
    “With the work and effort of everyone, we were able to win the @leaguescup clinching the first title in @opencup history, we made it to the finals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. @mls and were even fighting to get into the @intermiamicf, play-offs almost until the very last moment.
    “We stayed with all the good things and above all the desire to improve to be even more competitive next year.
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    “I would like to thank all the people of the club and the city of Miami for the support they always give us.
    “I’m sure we’ll continue to have amazing moments together as we have in the past few months.
    “A hug for everyone!”
    But after Inter Miami missed out on the play-offs, Messi could head out on loan briefly when the winter transfer window reopens.
    An emotional return to Barcelona could be on the cards while a Saudi side could try and lure the World Cup winner to the Middle East on a temporary deal before the 2024 MLS season gets underway in late February.
    While Messi and Co were in North Carolina to face Charlotte in their final MLS game of the season, his wife headed to her all-star lunch.
    Antonela Roccuzzo posed for photos with Victoria at their classy trip out in Miami.
    Antonela opted for a black number revealing her stomach while Posh Spice stunned in a full-length white dress and black heels.
    The glamorous pair, previously spotted together at Inter Miami matches, joined their mutual friend Isabela Grutman for the release of her new fashion range.
    The Argentine has scored 11 goals in 14 appearancesCredit: Reuters
    Inter Miami won the Leagues Cup, the first trophy in their historyCredit: Getty
    The pair dazzled while their husbands were in Charlotte for the final MLS match of the seasonCredit: Instagram
    They were out to support their friend’s fashion range launchCredit: Instagram More

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    Jack Wilshere tipped to be a Premier League boss as he’s in line for shock role in first managerial appointment

    JACK WILSHERE has the potential to become a Premier League manager one day, according to Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.The former Gunners midfielder has been interviewed by the Colorado Rapids for the MLS side’s vacant head coach position.
    Jack Wilshere has entered the world of coaching at ArsenalCredit: Getty
    There is a link between the teams as the US club are owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, who are the long-term owners of Arsenal.
    Wilshere, 31, only retired from playing last year and has had an impressive start to his coaching career, guiding the Arsenal Under-18s to the FA Youth Cup Final where they were beaten 5-1 at home by West Ham.
    Asked whether Wilshere has the making of being a top-level boss, Arteta said: “Yeah but way down the line, you don’t know when that is, it could be very soon.
    “He’s got the potential to do it, now he’s clear in his mind what he wants to do and the reason why he wants to do it, and I think it’s a big asset for the club to have him here.
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    “I’m really happy that Jack is part of the setup at Arsenal. I think he’s done really well.
    “I think he was really needed around the academy and the place, and these things are going to happen when people are doing well.
    “He’s going to get attraction, and then it’s going to come down to him to make the best decision for his career.”
    Wilshere played 197 times for Arsenal between 2008 and 2018, scoring 14 goals and assisting a further 30.
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    During his Gunners stay he also enjoyed loan stints with Bolton and Bournemouth.
    After leaving the Emirates he spent two seasons with West Ham, playing just 19 times.
    He finished his playing career with further spells at Bournemouth and Danish side AGF. More

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    Lionel Messi’s salary published by MLS with Inter Miami star’s staggering wages putting rivals to shame

    LIONEL MESSI is unsurprisingly earning the big bucks at Inter Miami. And the World Cup winner isn’t just the highest earning player currently in the MLS, but is also the biggest earner in the history of the league.
    Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami salary has been revealedCredit: AFP
    Messi signed for the MLS outfit this summerCredit: Alamy
    New figures released by the MLS Players Association reveal that the global superstar is earning a whopping $20.4m (£16.8m) per season with his new club.
    The Argentine is said to be earning base salary of $12m (£9.8m) with a further $8.4m (£6.9m) coming in the form of guaranteed bonuses and signing on fees.
    And those figures are just a drop in the ocean of what he is reported to be earning when his sponsorship deals with Apple, Adidas and Fanatics are taken into account.
    Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas previously revealed that all-in-all Messi’s contract would see him earn between “$50m (£41.1m) to $60m (£49.4m) per year”.
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    But even without his added sponsorships, Messi dwarves his competitors in the battle for the biggest pay cheque.
    Lorenzo Insigne is the league’s second highest earner, collecting $15.4m (£12.7m) from Toronto FC each season.
    While former Liverpool man Xherdan Shaqiri earns the third most in the MLS with his $8.1m (£6.7m) per season contract.
    In fact Messi is earning so much that he personally pockets more money from Inter Miami than the entire wage bill of 25 of the teams in the MLS.
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    Lorenzo Insigne is the second highest paid player in the MLSCredit: Alamy
    Xherdan Shaqiri makes the third most in the league, but is still miles behind Messi’s earningsCredit: AP
    Forgotten Premier League star Christian Benteke is amongst the league’s top ten earners with his £3.6m per year salaryCredit: Getty
    And his high profile teammates are earning pennies in comparison to the former Barcelona and PSG star.
    Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, who both followed Messi to Florida, are miles away from the salaries you would expect them to be collecting.
    Busquets takes home $1.8m (£1.5m) every season while Alba earns slightly less with his yearly salary coming out to $1.25m (£1m).
    But fans of the Herons may feel his compensation is justified with Messi already netting 11 times and providing five assists in just 13 appearances for the club.
    Messi earns a staggering £15.8m more than teammate Jordi Alba each seasonCredit: AFP
    Sergio Busquets is earning far less than Messi at Inter MiamiCredit: Getty More

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    Forgotten one-cap England ace Kevin Keegan dubbed ‘left-sided David Beckham’ now learning managerial ropes in MLS

    THROW your mind back to 1999, when England had the likes of Alan Shearer, Michael Owen and Frank Lampard playing in a 2-1 win over Belgium in October.The Three Lions were managed by Kevin Keegan, with current England boss Gareth Southgate being named in defence.
    One-cap England star Steve Guppy took up coaching after retiring from footballCredit: PA:Press Association
    Guppy is an assistant coach at MLS side NashvilleCredit: Getty
    But in the more than two-decade interval since, fans may have forgotten England’s left-midfielder from that game. A certain Steve Guppy.
    Dubbed a “left-sided David Beckham” by Keegan ahead of his England debut, Guppy appeared destined for greatness.
    Guppy, who starred for Leicester at the time, played the full duration of the match.
    However, it would turn out to be his one and only international cap as England’s infamous left wing problem became synonymous with repeated failures of the so-called “golden generation”.
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    Fast forward to 2023, Guppy now finds himself in Nashville, TN, United States.
    Though he is not over there for to simply see the sights.
    Guppy, having played in the States for D.C. United and Rochester New York during the twilight of his playing career, decided to make his stay across the Atlantic long-term.
    Having had assistant coaching stints at Colorado Rapids, Sunderland and Ireland, Guppy eventually found himself heading to Nashville under former Fulham academy star Gary Smith in 2020.
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    Now age 54, he has remained in the coaching team at the club since.
    With Guppy’s help Nashville have made the Major League Soccer post-season play-offs three years running.
    Guppy, a title winner with Celtic and League Cup winner with Leicester, came agonisingly close to lifting Nashville’s first piece of silverware earlier this season.
    They made it all the way to the Leagues Cup final, only to lose to a Lionel Messi-inspired Inter Miami on penalties.
    Despite this, Guppy appears to have fallen in love with coaching admitting he rarely looked back on his career due to being “so into coaching”.
    Speaking to the Celtic View Podcast in April, Guppy said: “I look back now very rarely as I’m so into coaching.
    “But on the odd occasions, I think back it’s nice to say you played for Celtic, especially out here in America because everyone knows the club.”
    Guppy told SunSport last year how much he loved the “family oriented” way of life in the MLS.
    Writing in an exclusive column, he said: “I remember running down the wing at DC United when I first joined the club in 2006 and I heard an unusual roar at the other end of the pitch. 
    “Whenever that happened in England it tended to be that a fight had broken out in the crowd. 
    “When I looked up it wasn’t a scrap but a giant teddy bear mascot catapulting sweets into the stands.
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    “I chuckled to myself and thought wow this is different from my time playing in the blood and thunder of the English leagues with the likes of Wycombe, Port Vale and Leicester!
    “The MLS is very family oriented which is what I love about it, and I cannot wait for the season to start.”
    Guppy, dubbed ‘a left-sided David Beckham, earned just one England cap in 1999Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd More

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    Jack Wilshere granted permission by Arsenal to hold talks over shock first manager’s job aged 31

    JACK WILSHERE has been given permission to speak to the Colorado Rapids about becoming their manager.The 31-year-old could be set to land his first managerial job after retiring last summer.
    Jack Wilshere has been given permission to speak to the Colorado RapidsCredit: Getty
    According to The Athletic, Arsenal have granted Wilshere permission to speak to the MLS side.
    Wilshere is understood to have impressed in an interview with the Rapids but a decision on whether to appoint him has yet to be made.
    The former England midfielder is keen on a senior management role if the right opportunity arises, the report adds.
    Robin Fraser was sacked by the Rapids, who like Arsenal are also owned by the Kroenke Sports & Entertainment Group, in September.
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    Chris Little has been in charge on an interim basis since Fraser’s exit.
    Wilshere returned to Arsenal in July last year after announcing his retirement aged 30.
    He has since been managing the club’s under-18s side and guided the Gunners to last season’s FA Youth Cup final.
    As a player, Wilshere progressed through Arsenal’s academy before making his senior debut aged 16 in 2008.
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    By the time his 17-year association with the club ended in 2018, he had made 197 appearances, scoring 14 goals and winning the FA Cup twice.
    Wilshere later had spells with West Ham, Bournemouth and Danish side Aarhus before hanging up his boots.
    He also won 34 caps for England as a player, scoring two goals.
    Wilshere has been in charge of Arsenal’s under-18s since retiring last summerCredit: Getty More

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    Little-known Lionel Messi team-mate reveals wife wanted to KILL HIM when he joined countryman at Inter Miami

    LIONEL MESSI’S Argentine team-mate Facundo Farias has claimed his wife wanted to KILL him when he revealed he was joining Inter Miami.Farias, 21, had been heavily linked with a move to Europe – with Liverpool among the clubs interested in bringing him in.
    Lionel Messi and Facundo Farias both moved to Inter Miami in the summerCredit: Getty
    Farias, right, with his wife Angi OliveraCredit: Instagram
    But the midfielder remained at boyhood club Colon until July when he penned a three-year deal with Inter Miami.
    His arrival came just one month after Messi had confirmed he was joining David Beckham’s MLS outfit.
    And the Barcelona icon, 36, has gone on to contribute 11 goals and five assists in 13 games.
    However, Farias’ partner, Angi Olivera, was not pleased with leaving Argentina to move to the US.
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    The couple have a four-month-old son, Valentino, while Angi was also studying at the time of Farias’ transfer.
    Speaking to The Athletic, he said: “She [Angi] was studying her major but we had to move here.
    “She wanted to kill me! But I told her, ‘We’re going to play with Messi!'”
    Farias has scored three goals and provided two assists in 12 games since joining Inter Miami.
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    Angi was originally not on board with leaving Argentina for the USCredit: Instagram
    Farias convinced her by telling her they were moving to the same club as MessiCredit: Instagram
    The couple have a four-month-old son togetherCredit: Instagram
    He helped the club win the Leagues Cup, before they lost the U.S. Open Cup Final and failed to qualify for the MLS play-offs while Messi was missing with an injury.
    Yet despite the team’s struggles without their new talisman, Farias insists it is a blessing playing with the greatest player of all time.
    He went on to add: “You have to enjoy (Messi) as much as you can. He’s the best in the game. He proved that. So just enjoy him and learn from him whenever possible.
    “It’s a unique situation to be next to him. He’s a great teammate and he’s so important to us.
    “To have players like him, Sergio (Busquets), and Jordi (Alba) on your team, these are players who have had incredible careers. Everyone respects them and that’s a plus for us.
    “I’m learning so much from Leo and from everyone else.”
    Midfielder Farias is enjoying playing alongside MessiCredit: Instagram
    Messi has been sensational since arriving at Inter MiamiCredit: AP More