Messi says joining MLS's Inter Miami 'wasn't about money' after turning down $400 million from Saudi club

By Weston Blasi

The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner, four-time Champions League winner and World Cup champion will join the top soccer league in the United States

Soccer legend and newly minted World Cup champion Lionel Messi is set to join U.S. Major League Soccer's Inter Miami CF next season, according to reports from the BBC's Guillem Balague and soccer news-breaker Fabrizio Romano.

The move for the Argentinian comes after months of speculation of which club he will play for after his eventual departure from France's Paris Saint-Germain. Other teams reportedly interested in Messi were Barcelona FC and Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal.

"If it had been a matter of money, I'd have gone to Arabia or elsewhere. It seemed like a lot of money to me", Messi said in a Tuesday interview. "The truth is that my final decision goes elsewhere and not because of money."

See also: LIV and PGA Tour merger: Phil Mickelson and Donald Trump are all 'fore' it

Inter Miami is the 11th most valuable MLS club at $600 million, per Forbes, and is majority owned by Jorge Mas and soccer legend David Beckham is a co-owner.

According to a report from The Athletic, Apple (AAPL) , which owns the global streaming rights to MLS games, has gotten "very creative" with discussions about a potential Messi move to the MLS. Apple has discussed offering Messi a share of the revenue generated from new subscribers to MLS Season Pass, the tech giant's Apple TV+ product to watch games, according to sources briefed on the discussions.

Apple also announced Tuesday that it is producing a documentary on Messi and his World Cup career that will debut on Apple TV+.

That same Athletic report indicated that Adidas, who also sponsors Messi in addition to the MLS, has considered a similar revenue sharing agreement with the soccer star if he came to the MLS.

Apple and Adidas did not respond to MarketWatch's requests for comment on this story.

It would be a major boost for American soccer, which has attracted superstars like Pele, Beckham and Thierry Henry over the years.

While the MLS is not considered a top soccer league in the world, trailing other historic entities including England's Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, Spain's La Liga, and Italy's Serie A, the MLS, founded in 1993, is one of the newer soccer leagues in the world.

If the reports are accurate, Messi, would have turned down an offer from Al-Hilal that would have paid him roughly $428 million per season, the highest per season contract in the history of professional sports. Other top footballer Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Saudi club Al-Nassr this season for history-making $210 million per season.

Messi is a seven-time Ballon d'Or winner, four-time Champions League winner, and 12-time domestic league champion and considered by many to be one of the greatest footballers of all time.

Messi, 35, has a net worth in the hundreds of millions. Last year alone he made $130 million ($65 million in salary, $65 million in endorsements), according to Forbes estimates.

Read on: LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan: who is the GOAT when it comes to net worth?

-Weston Blasi

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-07-23 1632ET

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.