Lionel Messi says hosting World Cup will be "important moment" for U.S. soccer
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Lionel Messi speaks at the America Business Forum. Photo: Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for America Business Forum
Inter Miami star Lionel Messi and FIFA President Gianni Infantino sparked excitement for the 2026 World Cup in remarks to a Miami business conference Wednesday.
Why it matters: Messi, who won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, told the crowd at the America Business Forum that hosting the tournament would be "an important moment" for soccer's growth in the U.S.
- Miami is among over a dozen North American cities hosting matches during the 2026 tournament.
- Messi, 38, has said he wants to play next year, but it will depend on his physical fitness. He recently signed an extension with Inter Miami through 2028.
What they're saying: Messi, who received a key to the city from Mayor Francis Suarez on Wednesday, says he appreciates the love that Miami has shown him since he joined the city's Major League Soccer club in 2023.
- During a star-studded conference at the Kaseya Center that featured a speech from President Trump, Messi received a more impassioned response from the crowd, who chanted his name and waved the Argentine flag.
- "We've had a lot of special guests, but no one got this reaction. Incredible. Not even presidents," Suarez said.
Messi said it's been a "spectacular experience" for him and his family to plant roots in Miami after playing in Barcelona and Paris.
- "We feel really loved, thankful and happy to be living in this city, and to have this distinction is a big honor," he said in Spanish.
- He said soccer in the U.S. has grown a lot, as evidenced by the packed stadiums he says Inter Miami encounters on the road.
What's next: Messi says he has high hopes that the World Cup will be "extraordinary" because the U.S. is capable of organizing it well.
- "I think it's an important moment for soccer in the U.S., which I hope it takes advantage of to keep growing."
For his part, Infantino — the FIFA boss — said Wednesday he would give away two tickets to a World Cup match in Miami.
- He picked the winner by asking Florida International University's Carlos Díaz-Rosillo to kick an autographed soccer ball into the crowd.
- "I really don't know if Americans realize what is going to happen," Infantino said of the pandemonium and economic impact of the tournament.
- "What will happen in this country is something incredible."