From China to El Salvador: Inter Miami's Preseason Friendlies Unveiled!

Inter Miami’s Initial Plans For China Failed

Inter Miami was initially scheduled to play a pair of friendlies in November — against Quigdau Hainiu and Chendu Rongcheng.

Again, the idea was to promote the team and brand somewhere other than the United States.

Of course, when you have the world’s best player on your roster, it’s safe to say you are going to draw a crowd.

But there were several problems we identified in the initial trip.

For one, the talent in Chinese soccer is, well, not great.

Despite spending billions to develop the sport in the country, the Chinese Super League is more the equivalent of… I don’t know… the non-professional sixth division of English soccer.

And that might be a little harsh against the sixth division.

The issue was the threat of injury to any one of Inter Miami’s marquee players — let along Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba or Sergio Busquets — to play two teams who’s talent is questionable at best.

Well, for some reason that we still don’t know, plans fell through and the short tour was canceled before it even got off the ground.

Something was salvaged as Inter Miami did get a friendly at DRV PNK Stadium after the regular season to celebrate Messi winning the Baloon d’Or trophy.

Safe to say, the Herons dodged a major bullet.

But all was not lost.