Having finally made up his mind to put to bed the issue, Lionel Messi is packing his bags and taking his talents to Florida, undeniably with more than a little bit of help from the world’s biggest company to help MLS side Inter Miami seal the deal with the GOAT.<\/p>\n
As per The Athletic, Messi stands to get a share of Apple’s $2.5 billion, 10-year agreement with the MLS, which is no mere peanuts.<\/p>\n
Despite the full terms of his contract with Inter Miami not being complete yet, it has been further reported that the companies discussed giving him a share of the revenue generated by MLS Season Pass, the league’s Apple TV+ streaming package.<\/p>\n
Mind you, those subscription sales comprise the very foundation of the huge Apple-MLS deal, according to The Athletic and the day before Messi confirmed his decision to sign with Inter Miami, Apple immediately announced\u00a0it would air a four-part docu-series about the Argentinian superstar.<\/p>\n
Speculations had been rife earlier that the record seven-time Ballon d’Or winner would join Saudi Arabia\u2019s Al Ittihad on becoming a free agent this season in a move that would see him overtake by a humongous margin arch rival Cristiano Ronaldo as the highest-paid player in football history when the later signed a $220 million-a-year contract with Al Nassr last December, per The Guardian.<\/p>\n
However \u2013 despite several more soccer luminaries including last season’s Ballon d’Or recipient Karim Benzema having signed contracts with Saudi clubs in the past week \u2013 the Argentine has been largely unconvinced and refused the massive $429 million a year carrot dangled before him, according to The Athletic.<\/p>\n
“If it had been a matter of money I would have gone to Arabia or elsewhere,” he told Mundo Deportivo. “It seemed like a lot of money to me and the truth is that my decision was for the other side and not for money.”<\/p>\n
The GOAT added that he wanted to seal his career “enjoying the day-to-day much more, but with the same responsibility of wanting to win and always doing things well, but with more peace of mind.”<\/p>\n
Co-founded by David Beckham in 2018 and playing in the MLS only since 2020, Inter Miami itself came into existence thanks to Beckham’s own move to the MLS in 2007, because it came with an option to purchase an expansion team for $25 million.<\/p>\n
Apple, Inter Miami, and the MLS did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.<\/p>\n
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