Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
By: Kike Frias Posted Aug 20, 2023, 10:03 am EDT
lionel Messi won the Leagues Cup last Saturday with Inter Miamithe first trophy for the still young MLS club, but also the Argentine He screwed himself into football history as the person who has won the most trophies in his career with 44mention shared with the Brazilian Dani Alves.
While his former teammate and soccer player Dani Alves is still detained in Spain, accused of sexual abuse and assault, Messi is the sensation in the United States and led a diminished Inter Miami to celebrate the championship of the first edition of the Leagues Cup, a tournament which brings together clubs from the MLS and Liga MX.
In less than a month at Inter Miami, Messi has radically transformed the dynamics of a losing team (bottom side in the Eastern Conference of the MLS with eleven games in a row without winning) and has led him to a miraculous career that culminated this Saturday with the victory in the Leagues Cup against Nashville (1-1, 9-10 in the round of penalties).
There is some conflicting information about how many titles Alves actually has and some statistics consider him to have won 43.
However, FIFA, in a 2021 publication on X (formerly Twitter), recognized 44 titles in the right-back’s career.
Messi’s impressive track record includes the Qatar 2022 World Cup and the 2021 Copa América with Argentina as well as four Champions League with Barcelona.
“Messi is the best in history”: Tata Martino
The arrival of Lionel Messi on the east coast of the United States was not alone, he was accompanied by his former teammates at FC Barcelona Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, as well as the coach -also Argentinian- Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino for lead the strings and revolutionize a team that is last in the local tournament.
In the heat of the celebrations, Tata Martino had no doubts in assuring that the ’10’ is the best footballer in history, surpassing historical figures such as Pelé, Diego Armando Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer or the still active Cristiano Ronaldo.
“When someone mentions Leo, they say ‘the best player in the world’. There is no greater praise than that. And he does it game after game, ”said the coach in statements to AppleTV+.
“What he expressed to tell the people and the Inter Miami fans that they came to win, that they came to compete, seems very important to me. Busquets and Jordi Alba said the same, that they have come to compete well. You can win and you can lose, obviously, but they have come to compete and this time they have had to win, ”he added.
Keep reading:
– Messi gives Inter Miami its first trophy in history and they take the Leagues Cup in a penalty shootout not suitable for the faint of heart
– Messi reveals the emotional family story behind his goal celebrations as Marvel superheroes
– Messi recognizes the level of the Liga MX and the growth of the MLS: “Teams from the United States can compete with the Mexicans”