Lionel Messi chooses the easy life at Inter Miami

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You never forget your first and David Beckham was mine.

Back in 2007, Beckham was arguably the most famous athlete in the world. When he decided to leave Europe and come to Major League Soccer that was news with a capital-N.

At the time, soccer was still an exoticism in North America, enjoyed by construction workers, hand talkers and people who tie sweaters around their shoulders.

Everyone in the newsroom knew who Beckham was, but no one important wanted to write it. So they gave it to me. I liked soccer, right? I’d heard of this guy? Great.

The non-sports editor who assigned it to me specifically mentioned Beckham’s hair. Make sure to get something about his hair up near the top.

That was my first A1.

When Beckham showed up in Los Angeles with the Galaxy a few weeks later, it was like Mardi Gras. Journos who couldn’t tell you if a soccer ball was stuffed or inflated came from all over to watch the guy who was going to make the sport matter in America.

Beckham arrived injured. He didn’t come in until late in the second half. Once he did, he just narrowly avoided having both ankles broken. Still, it was a moment in time.

That moment connects forward to now, but not in the way they make movies about. On Wednesday, Lionel Messi announced that he will also come to America. It was news, but news in the way LeBron James changing teams is news. Regular news.

Everyone knows what this is. Messi, 35, isn’t coming to America to redefine the entertainment landscape. He’s coming to semi-retire.

It would have been better for the MLS if Messi hadn’t confirmed that impression.

In announcing that he had chosen Inter Miami, which is part-owned by Beckham, he specifically noted that it was neither his first choice nor was it a love match.

“Obviously, I was very excited and wanted to return [to Barcelona]. … I’m also at a stage in my life where I want to get out of the spotlight and think more about my family,” Messi said.

Barcelona wouldn’t commit right away, so Messi took the second-best option. As romantic origin stories go, it’s up there with, ‘So after she broke up with my brother …’.

For God’s sake, try a little. Say you’d both just got out of something and didn’t want to date again, but then a friend showed you her picture and you were like, ‘Oh, whoa. Yeah, I guess I could have a coffee with Miami.’

And the explanation for moving – “out of the spotlight.” That must delight everyone who’s just agreed to make Messi the highest-paid player in North American soccer history. Maybe instead of going to practice, he can Zoom in from his kitchen while he makes his kids breakfast.

In fairness, there’s no reason Messi should expect this to be difficult. It wasn’t for Beckham. He came here, was often injured and/or terrible, got a part-time gig back in Europe during the off-season and people still loved him for it.

With his unusual combination of public naïveté and back room savvy, Beckham made it possible for a global star to give up on his dreams without becoming a total laughingstock. Just a partial one.

Messi could have traded Europe for a reported US$425-million-per-year deal to play in Saudi Arabia. Yes, you read that right.

But that move was complicated. It meant moving to another non-Spanish-speaking luxury prison. The Saudis would have expected him to front their bid for the 2030 World Cup. Most annoyingly, he would have become the public face of sportswashing just as everyone’s talking about it. Who needs that hassle?

Instead, Messi chose the easier path. He will be famous in Miami, but normal famous. Dan Marino famous. He can speak his own language and get by. He can go half speed and people will still tell him how great he is. He can play as much or as little as he likes, and protect his knees for one last World Cup.

Plus, there is the suggestion that MLS will give him a Beckham perk – the right to buy an MLS franchise. For Beckham, that turned into a nine-figure bonus. It’s not oil money, but it’s something.

The only downside? Messi has to pop his own balloon.

If you were lucky enough to watch him live at his best, then you know. It is difficult to describe how much Messi could do without seeming to do much at all. It felt like you were in the studio watching a master paint.

Now he’ll wrap up this epochal career amidst the hacks of MLS. It’s going to be Géricault in a roomful of colouring-book enthusiasts.

I recall the excellent (but nowhere close to Messi-level excellent) German, Torsten Frings. He also took a lucrative preretirement minibreak in MLS, as a member of Toronto FC.

When I see Frings in my mind’s eye now, it’s right after he’s made some 50-yard, inch-perfect pass out of the defence that his receiving teammate has immediately kicked into the fourth row of the stands. Frings would get a look on his face that said, ‘How did I get here? And what did I do to deserve this?’

Messi’s going to have a lot of those moments.

How did he get here? He chose the easy life over a difficult one. What did he do to deserve it? Nothing. At this point in his career, Messi only had second-best options.

In a way, it’s reassuring. We all like to think we can map our entire professional lives. But even the greatest of us don’t get to choose how we go out. The best you can do is to keep on going until someone else makes that choice for you.