For millions, maybe billions, of soccer lovers around the world, Lionel Messi is an icon, a larger-than-life figure thanks to his exploits on the pitch over the past two decades.
He represents that for those in and around the Inter Miami academy, too. The Herons’ youth players, coaches and families also get to see another, more relatable side of the GOAT, though, when he turns up on the sidelines to watch his three sons play for the club’s youth teams.
“He’s such a soccer dad. He comes to every game that he's available to come to,” explained Julius James, a former MLS player who has coached on IMCF’s academy staff since its launch in 2019, to MLSsoccer.com this week. “It’s really, really cool to just watch him just be there, enjoying his kids play.
“To see him take the time out of his schedule to make sure and be there to support them, it’s inspiring.”
Perfect storm
Luis Suárez, too, can be spotted at the young Herons’ matches. His son Benja, 12, is also a rising prospect in the system, and wears the No. 9 like his father. A video of the younger ‘Pistolero’ nutmegging an opponent last year went viral on social media, where he’s already inspired fan accounts with many thousands of followers.
The presence of superstars on gamedays (and the extra crowd-control measures it often necessitates) is just one facet of the Messi effect on Miami’s academy. A program already rich in talent pool and ambition before his arrival has rocketed into a different stratosphere in the two-plus years since he touched down in South Florida, drawing global attention and competing on some of youth soccer’s biggest stages, despite being younger than Messi’s kids.
The region’s dazzlingly international character and the strong Latin American flavor within it, combined with its balmy tropical weather, have fostered a vibrant youth soccer scene for generations. IMCF have ample fields to harvest in their backyard, though notably, kids commute from as far away as Naples on the state’s southwest coast, a two-hour drive across the Everglades.
Add the potent investment and worldwide connections of an ownership group led by local business magnate Jorge Mas and David Beckham, then sprinkle in some stardust from Messi and his ‘Fab Four’ friends from his FC Barcelona era, and you have the makings of an academy powerhouse.
“All the different demographics and the diversity in South Florida brings such a rich amount of talent to the region,” explained Under-16 coach Chris Nurse. “A lot of other MLS teams scout in our region, which means that you have to be very proactive to make sure you're identifying the top talents early, or they may slip under your radar and end up in another club and then a couple months later, you're playing against somebody who maybe lives 30 minutes away from you.
“You often find that technically, they can hold their own against any players from anywhere.”
Notable development
Nurse, an alumnus of IMCF’s more established crosstown counterparts Weston FC, led the Herons’ U-17s to this year’s MLS NEXT Cup trophy, the top honor on the league’s youth landscape, adding to the title their U-15s claimed in 2022, where future homegrown signing Santiago Morales bagged 1g/1a in the competition’s final.
The son of retired Real Salt Lake great Javier Morales, who coached in Miami’s academy before earning promotion to the first-team staff in 2023, ‘Santi’ earned a senior contract in 2023, which allowed him to continue his footballing education in close proximity to Messi, Suárez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and the rest of the Herons senior squad.
For him and fellow homegrowns like Noah Allen, Ian Fray, David Ruíz and Benja Cremaschi, that’s a priceless finishing school.
“I see things that I’d never seen in my life – and I played professionally for 20 years,” Javier Morales told MLSsocer.com during preseason about the day-to-day experience of working alongside Messi & Friends. “I didn't play at the top level like them, but now having those players every day in training sessions, sometimes I say, wow, I would love to have this experience when I was young, when I was playing, because you can learn a lot.
“So for those kids – academy players, young players from Argentina, from Venezuela – to be here, is great. It’s the best academics that they can have.”
Proven track record
Conversely, those rising kids, along with the steady stream of blue-chip youngsters imported from abroad via the U22 Initiative like club-record outbound transfer Diego Gómez, now in the English Premier League at Bright & Hove Albion, are also vital to the senior squad’s depth and consistent competitiveness, with MLS roster regulations heavily incentivizing development from within.
Cremaschi is perhaps the most prominent poster child of the academy project thus far. Born and raised in Key Biscayne by Argentine parents, the 20-year-old cut his teeth in MLS as the legs and steel to complement the Fab Four’s cleverness and guile. He earned a high-profile loan move to Serie A side Parma over the summer before starring for the US side at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
“The best thing that happened to me is for these players to come here to Inter Miami,” Cremaschi told MLSsoccer.com during preseason, “and the fact that I share the field with them, share day-to-day life with them, is amazing. I learned a lot from them, from watching them. Obviously, there's more eyes on the team right now, more than ever. So it's huge for a young player like me.”
When Messi won the 2024 Landon Donovan MLS MVP award in December following Miami’s record-setting, Supporters’ Shield-winning campaign, the manner in which the club revealed the news to him was noteworthy: A surprise ceremony in which more than 250 academy players arrayed in the letters MVP on the pitch at Chase Stadium, followed by brief remarks from six of them, explaining how he’d inspired them.
“Truly, it is an honor for me to receive this award from all of you,” Messi told the congregation. “It’s a source of pride to watch you all train. I’m very happy to be here every day. I’m very happy to be in this city, in this club that is growing.
“Fight for your dreams, work hard, and fight for what you want. In the end, sacrifice and effort are rewarded. The club continues to support you, as you are in a time of great growth, with many possibilities.”
Messi makes his mark
It all became that much more tangible at the start of the current 2025-26 academy season, when the baby Herons’ adidas kits were adorned with Messi’s official personal logo, stamped opposite the club crest over the heart. They’re the first teams ever to wear that mark, and the symbolism is stronger because it’s the first time the IMCF youth teams will wear the pink hue that’s become so central to the club’s visual identity.
“Having somebody like Messi be not just part of the first team, but have his brand on our shirts as the academy, as players, is a part of history, and is a special moment in time. And I think this is how the players take it,” said James.
“They were extremely excited to have the Messi brand on there, and to just be part of all of this that’s going on. A lot has changed in the soccer landscape in the United States since Messi came, and just being part of it is one thing. But being this close is, I'm not sure if I have the right words for this to describe it. It's very surreal.”
As you might expect, competition for places in the program is fierce, and the academy’s impressive lists of youth national team callups from multiple countries speak to the visibility its players command. That can be a double-edged sword, and itself a facet of the developmental journey.
“One of the advantages of being at the club is, the branding is so international. So it makes it a bit easier for our players, I would say, to be seen, because of the brand that they come from,” noted James. “With that, there's a lot of pressure, right? Because when they go into their national team systems, they have to represent the brand at the highest level.
“There's a big target on their backs when they travel – and on the teams too, when we travel and we go play. A lot of pressure, but it's good pressure.”
Family business
No one lives under more of a microscope than Messi’s own boys. As unique as their household’s footballing tutelage may be, as much exceptional ability as they’ve flashed in their young lives to date, their father’s fame casts an impossibly long shadow. Thus academy director Victor Pastora and his staff aim to provide a sustainable balance for Thiago, who’s currently with the IMCF U-14s, and his younger brothers.
It’s all part of the process.
“The main thing for us in Messi’s kids is just trying to allow them to have the most normal journey that they can,” said Nurse. “I can imagine the pressures they feel everywhere that they go, and it's trying to relieve that pressure from here, not adding additional pressure to them, just allow them to play in a safe environment and just to smile and enjoy themselves. I think every person that comes to the field, grown-ups especially, are coming to see Messi’s kids, expecting to see the next Messi, and it’s a really unfair expectation to place on the kids.
“We’ll see where they get to in the future. It's going to be really hard for there to be another Messi, but maybe they can have their own pathways.”
