Leo Messi Does his First Inter Miami Exec Move
Although it will never be admitted, the Argentina captain was the man involved in the hiring of Javier Mascherano
When asked about “the qualities of a coach” that Inter Miami needed to take over after the departure of Tata Martino, owner Jorge Mas did not really say too much. As a matter of fact he spent nearly an hour giving general answers to specific questions. Those that he decided not to answer he did go and offer an extended tap dance routine. That was most evident as he was giving a response to a question about Javier Mascherano being confirmed as the team’s new coach.
Mas explained everything from the experience that a coach had to have to how compatible he had to be with the squad that was going to deal with the “greatest players in their generation” and “a group of young kids”.
Mas also talked about the use of AI in the eventual selection of Mascherano.
Yet, there was a tale that was being told in Argentina the same night of the press conference. According to Diario Olé in Argentina, the Mascherano signing was already in the works.
The Occurrences
According to Martino, he said he spoke to Messi. Leo was one of the first ones to know. The timeline is still a bit blurry in terms of how this all is going down. Olé’s report basically was stating that there was a meeting between him, Mascherano and AFA president Chiqui Tapia.
Mascherano had recently returned to argentina from Bolivia after being part of the U20 tour of that country. Upon his return to the AFA Complex in Ezeiza, the meeting occurred and it was Messi that asked for this encounter to go down.
Once Messi informed the other parties involved were fine with the idea of Mascherano making the move to Miami. For Claudio Tapia, a move to Inter Miami would be a next move that he would have to make in order to “see his career move up”. Especially keeping in mind that he would be coaching a team that would be taking part in the Club World Cup.
The decision was made between Sunday and Monday, according to people within AFA that were aware of this situation
Let’s call it what it is… it’s a Messi move.
This was his first move as Inter Miami part owner.
They signed a coach that has been a failure and has failed up as a coach within the Argentina youth ranks. Mascherano was unable to qualify out of the group stage at the Maurice Revello Tournament back in 2022. He would see his fate repeated for the U20 World Cup in 2023 as they were knocked out in the South American qualifiers in the group stage. His saving grace was that Argentina became World Cup hosts after the Indonesia scandal, it gave him new life. That was short-lived as a star-filled Argentina side and was knocked out in his own backyard by Nigeria.
The powers that be at AFA decided to renew him and now only kept him on as the U-20, but also the U-23 coach. Argentina, had to battle until the final day in order to advance to the Olympics, only to lose to Morocco in the inaugural match and then got knocked out after losing to France.
That was not enough to see him be sacked as he remained a part of the U-20s until this week.
Again, this hire will be clouded by all MLS propaganda and spin, so be very wary on how this arrival will be.
One more thing, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jorge Mas on a podcast I used to host at the time. One thing he was adamant about was having a team that played “offensive, attacking soccer”. In that concept he wanted to have a team “that played 4-3-3”.
Mascherano is a 4-3-3 obsessive and does not deviate from that scheme regardless of the circumstances. He’s confessed he’s more Luis Enrique than Guardiola as he doesn’t want to possess for the “sake of his rival not having the ball”, he wants “to possess for the sake of doing damage”. This was his take in an interview back in So, it’s a match made in heaven as Mas has an obsession with all things Barcelona (if that was not evident already), despite David Beckham obliging and having even pushed aside a part of the fanbase that used to cheer him on when he played against Messi’s archrivals.
Surely, this hire is not one that will make the fan base truly go into an utter state of euphoria going into 2025.