Mas, along with brother José and fellow co-owner David Beckham, began reaching out to Messi’s camp several years ago, setting up a string of in-person meetings in such far-reaching destinations as London, Barcelona and the player’s birth city of Rosario.
However, it was Argentina’s pre-World Cup training camp at Inter Miami’s facility in September 2022 that helped Mas convince Messi that MLS was the perfect landing spot for him.
“I was at the facility every day, and I had an opportunity to talk to Lionel extensively,” Mas said. “I asked him, ‘What are your aspirations? What are your dreams?’ Right? Like, ‘What do you want?’”
In the end, Messi wanted Inter Miami’s project, although he waited until early June to announce his intention to join the squad before his contract was finally made official on July 15. Those months of waiting were pure torture for Mas, he now concedes.
“I asked Lionel at the time, ‘And Lionel, you know when did you really make a decision,'” Mas said about a recent conversation he had with the Argentine legend.
“And he told me, he goes, ‘No, really, Jorge, when you and I were together in late September, early October last year, I was really geared towards going to Miami.’ And I’m sort of thinking to myself, ‘Oh, my god, I could have saved nine months of tremendous heartache.'”
