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What should we expect from Inter Miami’s MLS debut next year?

By Graham Ruthven

22 November 2009: Seattle Sounders FC fans hold up the scarves before the game as the video board displays the MLS Cup 2009 logo. Real Salt Lake defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy 5-4 on penalty kicks after the teams played to a 1-1 overtime tie at Qwest Field in Seattle, Washington in MLS Cup 2009, Major League Soccer's championship game. (Photo by Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
22 November 2009: Seattle Sounders FC fans hold up the scarves before the game as the video board displays the MLS Cup 2009 logo. Real Salt Lake defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy 5-4 on penalty kicks after the teams played to a 1-1 overtime tie at Qwest Field in Seattle, Washington in MLS Cup 2009, Major League Soccer's championship game. (Photo by Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images) /
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Inter Miami is set to join MLS next season, but will they make a splash or will their introduction be made at a lower level?

David Beckham stood there alongside Major League Soccer Don Garber as the usual routine was observed. Garber had been through this enough times as the commissioner of a league that had nearly doubled in size in the space of just 10 years, but few expansion franchise announcements had come with as many unanswered questions as this.

It was confirmed that Beckham had exercised the option to purchase a team written into his MLS contract as a player and that he, along with fellow investors Simon Fuller and Marcelo Claure, had decided to root their club in Miami. What followed was the most drawn out expansion drama in the league’s history.

Miami Beckham United, as the investment group was titled, struggled to find a place to call home, exploring countless sites around the city. Even now, with Inter Miami (the club eventually settled on) preparing to start play next year, there is a number of unresolved issues regarding their stadium site, with the redeveloped Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale to be their temporary home.

But what sort of team will Inter Miami be? The South Florida already has three players on its roster, with Venezuelan Christian Makoun and Argentinean youth international Julian Carranza signed to next season’s squad. 19-year-old Matias Pellegrini has also been signed as Inter Miami’s first Designated Player. They clearly have high hopes for the midfielder.

Expectations for expansion franchises have been raised by the recent success of both Atlanta United and Los Angeles FC. The former has set a new standard in North American soccer, regularly welcoming crowds of over 70,000 to their home games and winning the MLS Cup in just their second year of existence. LAFC are also on course to follow Atlanta’s lead, currently sitting top of the regular season standings after joining the league just last year.

Having Beckham’s name attached naturally raises expectations. Miami is also a challenging sports market, with South Floridians typically only interested when there is a winning team to cheer for. It’s unlikely that Inter Miami will be a Minnesota United or a FC Cincinnati. They will at least attempt to follow the precedent set by Atlanta United and LAFC.

This is reflected in some of the speculation around the club at the moment. Edinson Cavani, the Uruguayan striker who has scored 136 goals in five years for Paris Saint-Germain, has been mentioned as a potential signing. Carlo Ancelotti, the three-time Champions League winner, and Gennaro Gattuso, the former AC Milan boss, have both been mooted as potential head coach options.

Most recently, though, the prospect of Lionel Messi making the move to South Florida has been raised. It emerged over the international break that the 32-year-old has a clause in his Barcelona contract that would allow him to leave the Camp Nou as a free agent next summer. Beckham, it is believed, sees Messi as the ultimate statement signing.

Of course, it’s unlikely that Messi, still somewhere close to the peak of his powers, will pitch up in Fort Lauderdale next year, but Inter Miami could still lay the groundwork that eventually sees the Argentine make the move to MLS at some point in the future. Look at how the LA Galaxy spent a number of years luring Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

In the meantime, Beckham must focus on finding the right man to stand in the dugout. This is what Atlanta United and LAFC got right in hiring Tata Martino and Bob Bradley respectively. Get the right head coach in and the rest stands a better chance of falling into place. As is the case with so many aspects of Inter Miami, nobody is quite sure what to expect.

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