Messi: Need We Say More?!

By Joey Johnston 

Messi.

Need we say more?

The Florida Derby — a preseason soccer match between Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF and Orlando City SC — is headed to Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. And what a Valentine’s Day treat is in store for the fans on Friday, Feb. 14.

It’s a chance to see Messi. 

Need we say more? 

He’s Lionel Messi, by all accounts the greatest and most decorated player in soccer history, who now plays for Inter Miami. He’s a 5-foot-7 magician on the pitch, a World Cup champion and Olympic gold-medal winner for his native Argentina, a superstar beyond compare for Spanish powerhouse FC Barcelona, a record eight-time winner of the Ballon d’Or Trophy (world’s best player). 

“When you talk about your life in the long run, I think you shouldn’t put a big priority on the things you own,’’ said Kevin McCarron, a Tampa realtor and longtime soccer entrepreneur who is the head coach at Tampa Catholic High School. “Life is really all about memories and the things you remember doing. If you care about soccer, about sports in general or you want to make some unforgettable memories, you’ve got to go see Messi play. This guy is unique.’’

In 2012, a Japanese jeweler took a cast of Messi’s left foot and recreated it in gold. The statue was auctioned for $ 5 million (and promptly donated to Messi’s charity foundation).

Practically from the beginning, the soccer world has been at Messi’s feet. Since 2023, he has performed on the American stage, lighting up MLS as a one-man tourist attraction 

“During his whole career, he has lit up every game he has played in,’’ former Manchester United player Gary Neville once said. “If you’ve watched Lionel Messi play live, you are truly blessed.’’

In Tampa, the obvious comparison is June 6, 1976, when the New York Cosmos and all-time great Pele arrived at the old Tampa Stadium for a match against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Pele became a Brazilian hero when he won the World Cup for his country at age 18. In his Tampa debut, Pele was 36 and playing his 1,296th career soccer match (with 1,246 goals). 

The game sold out quickly (42,611 fans with the end-zone areas still under construction in the expanding facility) and stadium officials reported that many of the parking areas were full some three hours before kickoff. The Rowdies won 5-1 in the nationally televised contest — Pele was scoreless, just missing a goal on a header — but the result was almost inconsequential.

This was an occasion. 

Pele, accommodating and humble to a fault, presented his No. 10 jersey to Alex Pringle, the Rowdies defender and signed a fleet of autographs (many before he could leave the field). Nearly a half-century later, teenage fans are approaching retirement age. And they’ll still announce with pride that they were there to witness the first Tampa appearance of the great Pele.

“Pele was the best player in the world and he was revered by everyone, even the other pros … so to be on the same field with him was an amazing sensation,’’ said Farrukh Quraishi, who played with the Rowdies from 1975-80. “Now with the chance to see Messi, the greatest player of his generation and arguably the greatest player ever, it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“It’s like watching Michael Jordan or LeBron James. It’s like watching a famous musician or artist. Messi sees things before they happen. He can score with both feet. He can score with his head. He has explosive acceleration. His touch is just impeccable. He’s just a marvelous, marvelous player, the definition of soccer greatness.’’

For decades, Tampa Bay area fans have encountered the greatest athletes in all sports.

The youthful Arnold Palmer won the 1958 St. Petersburg Open at the Pasadena Country Club, getting an eagle and five birdies on the final day, while 24-year-old Jack Nicklaus played the same tournament in 1964. Nicklaus captured the 1996 GTE Suncoast Classic at TPC of Tampa Bay, but the senior tournament memories weren’t as kind for Palmer as he lost a six-stroke lead with nine holes to play in the 1981 event at the Carrollwood Golf and Country Club.

But the area’s seminal golf moment occurred in 2018, when Tigers Woods played his only Valspar Championship. When the word came down, the tournament added an eighth admission gate, more than 6,000 parking spaces and 30 spectator buses … along with 90 port-a-potties. Tiger did not disappoint, finishing in a tie for second place with a 9-under 275 and helping to generate a 5.1 television rating (the highest for a non-major in five years and a 190-percent increase from the 2017 Valspar final round). 

Maybe you were at St. Petersburg’s Bartlett Park Tennis Center in 1971, when Chris Evert, a 16-year-old junior at Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas High School, defeated Billie Jean King in the Virginia Slims Masters tournament semifinals (Evert beat BJK the following year as well, a prelude to her Hall of Fame professional tennis career). Or maybe you caught the 1990 Davis Cup Final at the Florida Suncoast Dome (now Tropicana Field), when Andre Agassi and Michael Chang helped the United States defeat Australia.

In 1993, Jim Courier and Pete Sampras staged an exhibition tennis match at the USF Sun Dome. But the crowd was mesmerized by the event’s warmup act — 12-year-old Serena Williams against her 13-year-old sister Venus. Were you there?

The stars of basketball, hockey, baseball and football are much more accessible because of the Tampa Bay area’s professional franchises (along with the NBA in Orlando). But it was still an attraction when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls visited the Florida Suncoast Dome in 1990 for an exhibition game (attendance: 25,710) against the Seattle SuperSonics (MJ had 22 points in 35 minutes). During Jordan’s first two NBA regular-season games in Orlando, he had 52 and 49 points.

Wayne Gretzky helped to attract the NHL franchise that became the Lightning as the headliner for a 1990 exhibition game that attracted 25,581 fans to the Florida Suncoast Dome. Gretzky was Most Valuable Player for the 1999 NHL All-Star Game in Tampa. 

With the presence of the Tampa Bay Rays — and decades of spring training games — practically every significant baseball player has been spotted on a local diamond. Babe Ruth spent many of those seasons training in St. Petersburg with the New York Yankees. But when he played for the Boston Red Sox, Ruth hit a mammoth home-run shot, purported to be 587 feet and the longest of his career, in an exhibition game at Tampa’s Plant Field. The Tampa Morning Tribune described it as a “wallop stupendous.’’ The home-run ball was held in private collections for nearly a century before being donated to the University of Tampa’s Plant Museum. 

Tampa Bay area fans got three seasons of Tom Brady (the GOAT himself) playing quarterback for the Buccaneers. In the city’s pre-NFL era, Coach Vince Lombardi and quarterback Johnny Unitas appeared in exhibition games. And when the New York Jets came to town for three different appearances, the advertisements clearly spelled out the main attraction: “SEE JOE NAMATH.’’

Long before the NFL became America’s most popular sport, Tampa staged a football exhibition on Jan. 1, 1926 that matched the barnstorming Tampa Cardinals (with Jim Thorpe) against the Chicago Bears (with Red Grange). Grange had a 70-yard touchdown.

And what of boxer Muhammad Ali, who generally finishes first when people create lists of the world’s best-known athletes? Ali never officially fought in Tampa. But in 1973, Ali appeared at the Curtis Hixon Convention Center in downtown Tampa as a “guest referee’’ for a series of bouts, where he hammed it up for 2,200 fans. Little-known fact: In 1969, promoter Ron Gorton arranged for a bout between Ali and Joe Frazier at 46,477-seat Tampa Stadium, but it fell through. Ali and Frazier would meet at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1971 for what has been described as “The Fight of the Century.’’

That’s a lot of history.

That’s a lot of encounters with sports immortals.

Now comes the latest.

Messi is coming to Tampa.

“This is the pinnacle, the best player from the world’s most popular sport,’’ said Perry Van der Beck, a former Rowdies player who has served as a coach and administrator in professional soccer. “When someone like that comes that close, comes to your backyard, it’s a massive moment.’’ 

It’s the chance to see Messi. 

Need we say more?