Sporting KC
Messi to Miami, But Please No Ronaldo to Sporting KC
Lionel Messi is coming to Major League Soccer (probably). Is Cristiano Ronaldo right behind him and where would he land?
You may have heard some big news recently. Some guy named Lionel Messi is coming to Major League Soccer and joining the worst team in the Eastern Conference, Inter Miami CF. Even Sporting Kansas City, who were winless through 10-games, have more points than Miami.
The 🐐 is coming. Millions of MLS fans all over the world welcome you, Leo.
Follow along for more. 👀 pic.twitter.com/NLzkatvwrC
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) June 7, 2023
Messi himself said it, along with numerous other reports. There are tons of stories and podcasts about it, so I won’t beat it to death. Obviously, it’s good for the league, it’s good for Miami and it may even be good for other clubs (depending on how many of these new eyes stay on MLS).
I’m a little annoyed they are changing the rules to allow Miami to do this (they don’t have an open Designated Player spot), but I assume they would have made it work for Sporting Kansas City if they’d have gotten Cristiano Ronaldo as well. Maybe.
Ronaldo to MLS Too?!?
Speaking of Ronaldo, you can’t hear about Messi without hearing about him. Known soccer reporters over at Forbes magazine are reporting that Ronaldo wants out of Saudi Arabia. They picked up on reports from other outlets that Ronaldo is “already fed up of life in Saudi Arabia after struggling to adapt to the local culture.”
He would have to get out of the two-and-a-half-year deal with Al-Nassr. If he can, there is apparently an “MLS club [that] reportedly [looked] into signing” him. When you hear that, you can be excused if your mind goes to Sporting KC, who were heavily linked to the star at the beginning of the year (we even did an Emergency Podcast on it).
While it would undoubtedly sell a lot of Sporting Blue jerseys (and Indigo for that matter), it just seems like a disaster waiting to happen. He just joined his most recent club a few months ago and he already wants out. After coming over to Manchester United from Juventus, he was gone a little over a year later, causing controversy the whole way. He was also a distraction for Portugal when he was moved to the bench during the World Cup.
Add to that his past criminal allegations against him, from rape charges to tax evasion. Plus, I cannot imagine him standing up to the media scrutiny in America versus what he’s used to overseas, particularly the complete lack of scrutiny for his behavior towards women he’s been receiving in the Middle East.
Let’s not forget, he’s 38-years-old. Three years older than Messi, who many are predicting will only stick in Miami for 18-months. He’s undoubtedly lost a step (even if he’s still probably better than a ton of MLS players). He also seems to be a bad teammate with a bad defensive work rate. We all made the jokes of how he’ll react the first time Peter Vermes benches him.
He seems like he’d be a locker room cancer on a team that has a culture to die for. Through thick and (extremely) thin, Sporting KC have stuck together. People judge Alan Pulido for his unique clothing selection and fancy cars, but he’s a hustler. He works incredibly hard, and I question if at 38, Ronaldo will work half as hard.
MLS may change the rules to let this happen, but if they don’t, the math absolutely doesn’t add up. Sporting KC would have to make drastic moves to make him fit into their budget. Not to mention the small inconvenience of trading away their last international roster spot. Plus, where does he even line up in this system? Would they sell Pulido and play him at striker?
I will admit I was enamored with the Ronaldo rumor as much as anyone, but that was just the shock of the moment.
Not to mention the September 9th meeting between Sporting KC and Inter Miami CF falls during an international window, and it’s possible neither player would even be with their club (though, MLS can move that game if this does happen, right!?!?).
For me, this is a hard pass on Ronaldo. If he does get out of his deal though, where might he end up in MLS? I think LAFC have an open Designated Player spot for him to come ruin that team. Or help them win back-to-back titles. Their owner could send a gold version of this Tweet.
— Jorge Mas (@Jorge__Mas) June 7, 2023
What do you think? Do you want Ronaldo in Kansas City? What are your thoughts on the Messi deal?
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Can’t wait to see how Messi fits with Miami! Very exciting for the league. Hopefully we get a chance to go up against him soon.
With Ronaldo, it’d be great to have a player of that caliber on our team. But don’t see any way we could afford him. Probably best to get younger at that position… If we want all time talent I’d be much happier going after a guy like Neymar. He’d be a perfect fit for the culture here. And it’d be cool seeing his creativity with Russell, Salloi, Thommy and Kinda. Yes… I am really quite obsessed with that idea..
The only thing I like about a guy of Ronaldo’s acclaim coming to KC is the knock on effect it would have for guys like Jake Davis and Logan Ndenbe. Guys who are having super solid campaigns, who are recognized by locals for it, but who otherwise consistently fail to get mentions from the talking heads of MLS. Scouts around the world don’t care what Matthew Doyle says or doesn’t say about young MLSers. Now I don’t think we’d see another Busio-level deal for either of those guys but FCD have shipped lesser players to solid programs for more based on their reputation alone.
This is a very good point I hadn’t thought about. Exposure for these young guys and big fees to sell them on.
I want great players, but to sign them would mean scrapping our system. We would have to change our system to fit to those stars – so it would be a curiosity thing for me to see how vermes would ever adapt to Messi, Ronaldo, or any other huge name on the roster. Frankly, I fear it would waste their talent.
No to Ronaldo. He’s a whiny baby and, while he’s great at attacking soccer, he sucks at literally everything else.
Jorge Mas is a con-man and his Miami team is another grift. Messi won’t fix any of their issues but MLS is already all the way in because of the earnings potential he represents for the league. They’re still going to run out a sub-par side on the field and Messi is going to be fouls more and harder than he ever has been in his career.
This may not be the most popular opinion but I’m all for it. If this was three years ago and he didn’t have quite the checkered past, I would feel different.
I mean, if Ronaldo really was going to KC, I certainly wouldn’t turn my nose up at him. Everyone has their opinions on him, but he was still one of the first super stars I followed when I was a kid and it would be wild for him to play for my hometown team.
What actually makes me more frustrated though is the way that MLS is bending over backwards to make the Messi to Miami deal work when Sporting saw absolutely none of this support when we tried to bring in Ronaldo. It’s even more frustrating when you take into account Miami’s financial dealings in the past and how MLS said they wanted to hold them accountable and not bend the rules for anyone. I’ve never been under the illusion that bigwigs in MLS are in it for the love of the game; this just shows that they will continue to do what looks good and makes them money, even if it means bringing in a superstar to a team that has super low support in a city that’s just really big and has potential. KC has sold out games for so many years but we’re not repaid for that loyalty at all but since Miami is owned by Beckham, they’ll do whatever it takes to get Messi there.
Angry rant aside, this is definitely a good thing for the league and all teams, I just wish MLS would be more impartial in their support of clubs bringing in talent.
I suspect the league WAS bending over backwards to help SKC get Ronaldo, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to field a serious bid at all. The mere fact that SKC was (supposedly) a finalist probably means the league, Adidas and Apple were working just as hard for SKC as they were for Miami. Ronaldo just took the Saudi money anyway.
I think the truth is probably somewhere in between here. I do think the league would help, because Ronaldo is the only other guy probably even close to Messi’s stardom. But if it were LA or NY, I bet they’d help more.
On the podcast, I suggested the LA Galaxy buyout Chicharito and bring in Ronaldo. That’d make the league happy and he probably wouldn’t fix that mess of a team.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Messi’s “salary” ends up below the DP threshold and they call the real money something else. He’ll probably get $50m + from adidas that is considered not part of his MLS contract (like the old days in college basketball I guess), a 2-3% cut of the $2.5b Apple deal, and an ownership stake that equates to a free $30m +. And I’m guessing Messi is less greedy and demanding than Ronaldo.
I am still extremely skeptical of reports that SKC (a) made an offer for Ronaldo and, especially (b) received any serious interest from him in return. Ronaldo also has a billion dollar contract with Nike, which would complicate the back channels to slipping him money.
I don’t believe he has any desire to play in MLS (just like Saudi Arabia) and would transparently only be coming because the league is falling all over itself to get him in promo pictures. Given his health and effort the last couple years, I’d have to imagine his total compensation would be something like $5-10m a game to put in zero effort for SKC for a season and a half.
Last thought, these guys are huge international stars still, but they’re hardly on the radar of American sports fans. I can’t see offering either or both of these guys $200m + each giving anywhere near that return on investment. Ticket sales for the 50 or so games they appear in obviously won’t, and I just don’t see much room for growth otherwise. The Beckham investment was probably worth it in the pitiful MLS of 2003, but I think MLS has reached a stable, sustainable level in the American sports hierarchy as the 5th pro league after NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. College football and basketball are also almost certainly on top.