Lionel Messi was introduced as an Inter Miami player in front of a raucous sellout crowd of over 20,000 at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday night. Messi was welcomed in the driving rain with an impressive display of pyrotechnics and star-studded video messages (Tom Brady! Steph Curry! Gregg!), and he thanked the crowd for making his family feel so welcome in the city.
Shortly after that, wife Antonela Roccuzzo and the three boys (Thiago, Mateo and Ciro) showed up on stage to soak it all in. But they were thoroughly bored with all the speeches and photo opportunities by that point and quickly went off to do what Messis do — they play soccer.
Thiago, now age 10, then produced the highlight of the evening by ending his father's Miami career before it'd even begun.
First Messi nutmeg, el primer caño de la familia Messi #InterMiami #InterMiamiCF #messi @IMCFTraveller @InterMIAPodcast pic.twitter.com/EmPE8Gctsq
— Erick Solms (@esolms) July 17, 2023
And here's Messi the 36-year-old soccer dad. He loves it.
Lionel Messi has come back out on the field, with a spotlight firmly fixed on him.
He is watching his kids as they kick a ball around on the same field he is expected to score a lot of goals on.#InterMiamiCF #Messi pic.twitter.com/RYIufermcT— Franco Panizo (@FrancoPanizo) July 17, 2023
If any of the boys want to go pro, they're at the right club (the one where Romeo Beckham and Harvey Neville got minutes).
