Lionel Messi is now officially an Inter Miami player, and while fans will be eager to see what kind of impact he'll have on the field for his new team, it's away from the pitch that Messi will provide the biggest boost.
Accountants in Miami and at MLS headquarters will no doubt be casting an invested eye on Messi's effect on the bottom line — all of Miami's home games for 2023 are sold out, and the secondary market in cities that Messi is scheduled to visit this year is exploding.
But the Argentine's move to south Florida made an immediate impact on Miami's social reach, and there seems to be no end in sight in that regard.
According to research from Betway, Messi has more Instagram followers than every club in MLS and the official MLS account, combined. Messi's 479 million followers dwarfs nearly every other account on the planet, but it's even more pronounced in comparison to the North American league and its teams.
The MLS Instagram account boasts 2.5 million followers, which is more than any of its teams — except one. As of July 17, Miami now have 9.6 million followers on the popular app, which is an increase of nearly 8 million followers since Messi announced last month that he would be joining the club. The next highest follower count belongs to the Los Angeles Galaxy, David Beckham's old team, who have 1.5 million.
The other 27 teams are all in the six figures for followers, with MLS original New England Revolution having the lowest count at 126,000.
Aside from social media, Messi's prodigious talents have allowed him to win an absurd amount of trophies over his career, and Betway has the Argentine winning more hardware than the entire MLS Eastern Conference combined (15 teams). It should be noted that there are far fewer trophies on offer to MLS teams than there are in most European leagues — Toronto FC won MLS' first and only treble in 2017, and that was the maximum they could win that year — but it's still another staggering statistic indicating Messi's dominance and title-winning experience.
With a winners' mentality and his massive off-field following, Messi is set to provide more than just goals and assists for Inter Miami.