Late into the Florida evening on July 21, Lionel Messi stepped up to the ball and settled himself, but only for a second. Because, whenever one of history’s greatest players is on a soccer field he’s mostly always settled, never mind what chaos is going on around him.
You know what happened next, but it doesn’t get old, so let’s go with it. Messi drew back his left foot, as packed stands hushed and a worldwide audience waited and LeBron James, Serena Williams and David Beckham drew breath (Kim Kardashian was on her phone, sadly), and then, Messi made something insanely difficult look embarrassingly easy. The Argentinian superstar sent a dream of a free-kick curling into the net, just before time ran out with his Inter Miami debut against Mexico’s Cruz Azul seemingly headed to a penalty shootout.
The crowd erupted, and social media lost its collective mind. Beckham, the team’s owner, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but eventually did both. Messi, face curled in a shy smile after endless hugs from his teammates, was ushered before the cameras for an instant interview.
Messi doesn’t love the spotlight, for all his fame, but the global maestro was happy to chat this time, especially after a goal like that. However, first, he had something to say in his native Spanish.
“Let me dedicate this win,” he said. “To Ian …”
Ian is Ian Fray, a 21-year-old defender for Inter Miami, and if things had happened just a little differently that night, he’d have been right there in the mass scramble of pink-shirted players engulfing Messi as he sprinted toward the corner flag after scoring.
Instead, Fray had already left the stadium, and was following the game on his phone, in tears, in the back seat of his mom’s car, stationed in her driveway. In the 32nd minute, while making a recovery run after a surge forward, he had suffered a sickening left anterior cruciate ligament injury, just a year after the same thing happened to his other knee.
Because he loves soccer, had idolized Messi since he was a kid, and lives and breathes Inter Miami after joining the team through its youth academy, he could raise a cheer and a disbelieving shake of the head when the ball crashed into the net. Jubilation quickly faded as a moment later came the galling realization that he should have been there to see it from the best position in the house. He turned off his phone and hobbled inside.
Back to Messi’s interview though.
“…. to Ian Fray,” Messi continued with his dedication. “(He) was suffering in the locker room from the injury he sustained. He comes from two serious injuries, and today he has the bad luck to go through an injury again.”
As he spoke, a fresh truth hit home for much of the listening audience. Not only was Miami and MLS getting an all-time soccer icon. It was also getting a thoroughly decent human being.
“When he did that and took the time from that amazing moment to think of me, it meant the world,” Fray told me in a telephone conversation last week. “It still does. I was just sitting there thinking, ‘This guy doesn’t need to be doing this,’ but he did it for me. He did it because of who he is.”
Fray didn’t find out about Messi’s gesture until a few hours later, when he restlessly switched his phone back on, and it promptly started blowing up at 1 a.m. In a sad but helpful coincidence, there was already therapeutic equipment in the house, due to both his prior injury and because his sister Marlee – a Jamaica youth international – had also experienced a similar issue.
“I saw the interview on social media, but I don’t speak Spanish — I’m getting on Google Translate to figure out what he was saying,” Fray said. “Then I saw the photo of him and the guys with my jersey, holding it up in the locker room.
“At that point, I couldn’t cry anymore, I was just numb. It had a different kind of effect. I literally wanted to go and get the surgery then and there, so I could get back to soccer and play with Messi.”
Messi’s magical goal signaled an indisputable truth; the best player of his generation had not only come to America to play just months after taking Argentina to the World Cup title but was still able to perform at a cheat code level.
Try predicting something like that a decade earlier, while keeping a straight face.
In the couple of days that followed, Messi’s debut dramatics and that sweet free kick would be the most-discussed sporting moment in the country.
A few days later, Fray flew to Los Angeles to be operated on by renowned surgeon Bert Mandelbaum. On the flight over, he reflected on the moments after the injury, alone in the locker room until Beckham left his field-level seat to come back and join him.
The former England superstar didn’t say much. Any former athlete knows there’s not much to say in such moments, so he just hugged him for five minutes and eventually promised Fray that he’d have the club’s support.
Several months later, he made good on that promise. Fray, still recuperating, had his contract option picked up in October, a move that ensures he will remain with the club through at least the 2024 season.
As the end of this year approaches, Fray is on the road to recovery and looks good to be back in the line-up next season. His rehab has gone strongly, and he’s still putting in the hours now, working out every day despite Inter’s season ending earlier than hoped.
A recent highlight was when Messi brought in his Ballon D’Or trophy to show his teammates and the team’s academy players after receiving the award at a glittering ceremony in Paris. The impact he has had on the Miami squad, Fray insisted, goes far beyond his on-field mastery.
“That’s what people should really know about Messi, the little things he does like that,” Fray said. “Of course, the whole world gets to see the type of player he is and the things he can do with the ball at his feet. But he understands there is a lot more than that, and it is obvious he cares about his teammates.”
There is more to be written in Messi’s MLS story. The thrilling victory over Cruz Azul set off a white-knuckle ride through the League’s Cup tournament, with six more wins, topped off by a thrilling 10-9 shootout triumph over Nashville SC in the final.
Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba had arrived too late to lift the team into the playoffs and contention for the title, though club management hope that comes next year.
Meanwhile, the Messi Show is a legitimate thing. Prices on the secondary market for Inter Miami games are soaring through the roof. Miami season tickets sold out quickly for 2024, despite a steep price increase. Some other teams amended their ticketing policy to allow them to charge more for Messi games.
For Fray, he finds himself in an interesting limbo.
“I feel fortunate to be part of it, to be here at such an amazing time for the club and for American soccer, and to be able to see and train with and learn from (Messi) and these other great players,” he said.
“But at the same time, I haven’t had the full experience yet. I’ve watched, but I haven’t played alongside him, on the same team, in a proper game. That’s what I have to look forward to. And that’s what drives me now.”
