FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lionel Messi arrived at Inter Miami with the promise of big moments.
He produced a magical one for his debut Friday night.
Messi’s dazzling last-ditch, free-kick goal provided a dramatic winner, giving Inter Miami a 2-1 Leagues Cup victory over Mexican league side Cruz Azul.
And his winner inspired an immortal moment when, after he was mobbed by teammates, Messi exhorted the sellout crowd at DRV PNK Stadium into a frenzy, and ran over to his family in the stands for an emotional embrace.
“What I saw was the goal. I saw the goal, I knew that I had to score,” Messi said on Apple TV+. “It was the last play of the game and I wanted to score so we didn’t go to penalties. So it was very important for us to get this win. Because it’s a new tournament, this is going to give us confidence moving forward.”
That, in short, is exactly what MLS had in mind in bringing in Messi.
“That’s quite a moment,” MLS commissioner Don Garber told The Post. “It’s rare you get to experience history as it’s made. And tonight when he stepped up to the ball, you just had a feeling he was going to do the Messi magic, and he delivered and that’s just really special.”
Calling it “special” is understating it.
Four minutes into injury time, Messi, who didn’t start, but came on as a 54th minute sub, earned a free kick in a dangerous spot, 25 yards out to the left.
After tension built, he stepped over the ball and ripped a blistering, bending shot that Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham would’ve made jealous — an unsavable shot to the top left of the goal.
The seven time Ballon d’Or winner signed a 2 ½-year contract with Inter Miami paying between $50 million and $60 million annually along with team equity and revenue sharing from MLS’s new Apple TV+ deal. It’s hard to imagine a better start.
“This deal was so hard in the making, so much suspense of his first game, what would it mean on the field [beyond] all the off-the-field potential,” Garber told The Post. “At end of the day, Leo Messi is a great footballer. That’s why we’re thrilled he’s in our league, to do the things that create memorable moments for our league.”
Messi’s MLS debut came 16 years to the day after Beckham debuted with the L.A. Galaxy and legitimized the soccer league.
But Messi doesn’t have to be a pitch man like Beckham. He just has to play. And win.
“In the moment [Beckham] came to the league in 2007, it felt as important as Lionel deciding to make MLS his league of choice,” Garber told The Post. “Most people don’t remember David provided a global platform for the league at a time it was still in a fledgling state. He said MLS is a good league, and I’m going to make it better, and he did.
“Now we’re so far from having to be anything other than what we are. It’s just any incredible excitement Leo will deliver. It requires doing it on the field, and that’s what Leo is. He just wants to play. He just wants to win, and do the things to get people up out of their seats.”
Messi got everyone in the crowd — even the stars — out of their seats.
LeBron James, Tom Brady and Serena Williams all have a claim to the GOAT crown in their respective sports, and all were on hand, along with Kim Kardashian.
They got to see Robert Taylor put Inter Miami ahead in the 44th minute, and Cruz Azul’s Uriel Antuna score the equalizer in the 65th.
But Messi trumped them both with the winner.
“As soon I saw the free kick given, I thought, ‘This is the way it’s meant to win, especially when you have players like Leo and Sergio [Busquets] on the pitch,’ ” an emotional Beckham said on Apple TV+.
“This is such a special night for us, for our family, for everyone that’s in this stadium, for you guys. It is such a moment for this country, it’s such a moment for this league and it’s a very proud moment for us.”
