Inter Miami part-owner mrevealed his worries behind Lionel Messi‘s decision making before he joined the Major League Soccer club this summer.
In an exclusive interview on the podcast of his former Manchester United teammate Gary Neville, ‘Stick to Football’, the former England forward admitted that Messi’s decision making process left the club in the dark – and made him worried up until that announcement was made from the World Cup winner.
‘[Signing Messi] was more emotional than it should have been,’ Beckham said on the podcast. ‘Just because for the last 10 years to try and get this team up and running in Miami, there’s been so many obstacles, so many challenges, and sometimes it looked like it wasn’t going to happen, and then obviously everything came together once I found the right partners in Miami.
‘I was in Japan the morning that I found out that he was coming. His dad had called us that week and said, “Leo’s going to make an announcement” and then two days out, [his team] said “in the next two or three days he’ll come out and say something”, so we were kind of just waiting.
‘I was in Japan working, and it was 5am in the morning. The kids were in bed, Victoria was sleeping, and my phone was going mad because I’d forgot to turn it on silent. Victoria was telling me to turn it off, so I picked it up and I saw a barrage of messages and he’d come out and done his interview.
‘We always wanted him to decide based on wanting to live there with his family, wanting to still win and play football in the way he plays it, but we wanted him to announce it in his way.
‘He literally was sat in a hotel room with his mate filming and saying that he’s coming to Miami. So, for us, it was unbelievable, I was very emotional about it because it’s taken a lot of hard work to get here.
‘We made the offer [to Lionel], but he had offers from Saudi [Arabia], he’d had offers to go back to Barcelona and the Barcelona one really worried me because it pulls on the heartstrings. He never really got to say a proper goodbye, but then it was down to him to decide.’
Beckham also spoke about the chance to watch Messi train and play – and how watching him as an owner provides a different perspective.
‘I played against [Lionel Messi] for PSG [Paris Saint-Germain] and for Real Madrid, against Barcelona, Beckham shared. ‘And obviously he was unbelievable then, but it’s not until you physically see him, and you’re sat there watching him, and every move that he does – he never gives the ball away.
‘When Lionel first joined and arrived in Miami and he was training, I was there for the first five weeks. I was in the training ground 7:00am every morning just to watch him – and I’m 48 years old, so just to watch him do what he does, train the way that he does, prepare – it’s just different.’
Source: dailymail.co.uk
