The Daily Heron: ‘Futbol begins when football ends,’ Messi’s readiness and a correction

Futbol meets football: Messi & the Barcelona boys attend American football’s greatest spectacle

A rare crossover between America’s and the world’s favorite sports took place at Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, where Inter Miami captain Lionel Messi and his former Barcelona and current Herons teammates Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez watched the Philadelphia Eagles destroy the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.

The battle for the Lombardi Trophy, presented each season to the National Football League champion, ended in a 40-22 Eagles win that failed to represent Philadelphia’s dominance.

Messi and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes met when the Herons played Sporting KC in Kansas, and Mahomes spoke last week about taking inspiration from Messi’s example. It turned out that the star signal caller needed offensive line help more than a nod from the Argentine World Cup hero and eight-time winner of the Balon d’Or.

Messi and friends surely enjoyed the Super Bowl festivities, if not the game itself, but it’s likely they were there on business. During the game, Fox aired an Apple TV ad for its Major League Soccer Season Pass package. The ad featured Messi playing “keepie-up” with an American football before booting the egg-shaped “pigskin” through distant goalposts.

Forbes: Aging Messi still has ‘spark.’ Joseph O’Sullivan, writing for esteemed American business magazine, Forbes, reported on the Argentine legend’s chances of playing for the ”Albiceleste” in the 2026 World Cup. He rightly reports the eight-time Balon d’Or winner and 2022 World Cup hero is no longer the player he was, but still capable of magical moments.

"The spark of magic seems not to have faded. It may be less potent against stronger opposition, and it may be more sporadic, but the spark is certainly still there."

Joseph O’Sullivan, Forbes.com

Read O’Sullivan’s story here.

Fake news? Thiago Messi didn’t score 11 goals in a match. This is where I announce, with a blush, putting a sensational story ahead of sound journalism. Inter Heron — and many more prominent publications — giddily reported last week that Lionel Messi’s oldest son, Thiago, scored 11 goals for Inter Miami Academy in a 12-0 rout of Atlanta United’s U13s. There were plenty of clues that this couldn’t be true, if only I’d bothered to do a little research. Seth Vertelney, writing for Pro Soccer Wire, explains here.