Crucial value: When Messi did not play in Inter Miami’s friendly match in Hong Kong and complained of “swelling and pain in the groin area”, boos rained down from the stands. Image: AFP
If you want to see Inter Miami, you want to see Lionel Messi. Aging stars are not just a phenomenon in American football. Why and how do they remain so valuable for so long?
Determining the exact value of the best footballer in the world is no easy task. Of course, you can add up his annual salary and the gross sales from his advertising contracts and use them as a guide: a sum beyond the 150 million euros per year that Lionel Messi last earned in Paris, according to expert estimates.
You can also calculate the reach he achieves on social media, where the Argentine ball wizard now supplies 501 million Instagram subscribers with pictures and short messages.
However, you can also see the extent to which the 36-year-old has arrived in the attention economy from a less noticeable but no less dramatic effect. This became apparent after his last game with Inter Miami in mid-March. He suffered a thigh strain in the match against Nashville SC and was substituted in the 50th minute. His coach Tata Martino revealed to journalists afterwards that he had hoped that his midfield director would “hold on a little longer”. But he felt the injury was too serious. “So we preferred to take him out of the game.”