Wearing Inter Miami’s number 10 for the first time, Lionel Messi will open a new chapter in his remarkable career this Friday at the inauguration of the Liga Cup, a trophy contested by 47 MLS teams and the Mexican league.

This pioneering union of the two leagues, for a tournament that will be played entirely in the United States and Canada until the final on August 19, gained global appeal with Messi’s decision to leave European football and start a new life in Miami.

In his presentation at the DRV PNK Stadium on Sunday, the Argentine star urged his new fans to gather again on Friday for the Liga Cup opener against Mexico’s Cruz Azul.

In that matchup, which will meet the bottom-ranked MLS and Liga MX sides, Messi and Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets, his former Barcelona team-mate, are expected to play their first minutes at Inter either as starters or off the bench.

Both Argentina coach Gerardo Martino and franchise co-owner David Beckham have warned in recent days that Messi will have the final say over his attendance at the game, which sells for more than $18,000 in tickets.

“Leo will decide if he’s ready because we know he’s been away for a few weeks with his family. But he looks sharp, he looks very good,” Beckham said, warning that Messi may need some time to physically adjust and strengthen.

“Both have arrived well, we can expect to see them on Friday. But I don’t want to rush to say something that I won’t be able to fulfill later,” ‘Tata’ Martino told Argentine sports channel TyC on Wednesday.

The Argentine advisor said this Thursday at a press conference with Busquets that “results are expected immediately and we hope so, because the plan we have will certainly go better if we direct it with positive results.”

This Friday, Inter Miami officially signed a contract with the Spaniard Jordi Alba, a teammate of Messi and Busquets for a decade at FC Barcelona.

Beckham’s willingness to ease the pressure on his new star seems reasonable, given that Messi, at 36, has just competed in a busy season at Paris Saint-Germain with the added strain of the World Cup in Qatar, which he won with Argentina at the end of 2022.

Inter, however, have no time to waste if they hope to turn around their disastrous season, end their current 11-game winless streak and sneak into the play-offs.

The arrival of Messi, winner of seven Ballon d’Ors, coincides with a month-long MLS hiatus that gives him the chance to challenge for his first trophy in the Leagues Cup, which also offers three tickets to the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup, the gateway to the Club World Cup.

His first opponent will be Cruz Azul, one of the giants of Mexican football, but also in the low hours. Led by the veteran Brazilian coach Ricardo ‘Tuco’ Ferretti, the ‘Heavenly Machine’ did not fight for the title in the last tournaments, and in the current Apertura-2023 they count their three matches as defeats.

Uriel Antuna and Carlos Rodríguez, the characters of the team, have just rejoined the team after contributing to Mexico’s Gold Cup triumph.

In addition to Cruz Azul, Inter will also face Atlanta United in the first phase on Tuesday, a franchise in which the promising Argentinian Thiago Almada, Messi’s partner in the success of Qatar-2022, shines.

Three teams make up Southern Group 3 in the first stage, in which no match can end in a draw. In case there is no winner after 90 minutes, each team will get one point, and the one who wins on penalties will get another one.

A total of 15 groups of three teams were formed, with 28 representatives from the MLS and 17 from the Mexican league.

Having won their respective tournaments, Los Angeles FC of the United States and Pachuca of Mexico are exempt from the first stage and will join the top two from each group in the Round of 16 starting on August 2.

In the qualifying rounds, always in one game, the winners will then compete in the round of 16 (between August 6 and 8), quarter-finals (11-12) and semi-finals (August 15).

On August 19, the final of the tournament will be played and the battle for third place will be determined by the trio of teams for placement in the Concacaf Champions Cup. (D)