SEATTLE — Perhaps the closest thing the sports world has to the chaos brought by Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is the craze surrounding soccer legend Lionel Messi joining a club in America.
Cameras have followed Messi through grocery stores and giving him a hero's welcome to Inter Miami during an event earlier this week held by the club.
Swift might be doing a pair of shows in Seattle this weekend, but unfortunately for Pacific Northwest soccer fans, Messi mania won't make its way to the Emerald City anytime soon.
When will Messi play in Seattle?
Inter Miami is not on the remainder of the Sounders' schedule for 2023, either in the Leagues Cup or in Major League Soccer (MLS) play.
Given that Inter Miami is at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings going into Friday's games, it would take an all-time turnaround by Messi and his new team to make the MLS Playoffs, much less potentially advance all the way to the final and meet Seattle if they qualified for the MLS Cup final.
Seattle and Inter Miami are participating in the new Leagues Cup competition, but teams would have to advance out of their groups and improbably meet in the knockout rounds of the event.
Leagues Cup begins Friday evening and features all 29 MLS clubs and 18 LIGA MX clubs from Mexico's top-tier league. Messi's anticipated debut is slated against Cruz Azul, one of Mexico's premier clubs.
The 2024 MLS Schedule has yet to be released, and won't likely be announced until the end of the calendar year, as it has for recent seasons.
The teams almost certainly wouldn't meet more than once during MLS regular season, so the earliest Messi could be in Seattle would be 2024. If the teams are scheduled in Miami next season, 2025 would be the earliest. There is a chance, however, the clubs can meet in the U.S. Open Cup in 2024, a competition that includes all American clubs across the various leagues in a single-elimination format.
Messi's international career won't extend to 2026 after the magical run he led Argentina on in 2022 to win the World Cup. Seattle is one of the host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and Argentina could end up as one of the countries to be sent to Lumen Field. However, Messi has said publicly he has no plans to participate in what would be his sixth World Cup.
The bottom line is, any Seattleites itching to catch the Messi fever in person this year will need to buy a plane ticket.
