Jorge Mas, owner and manager of Inter Miami, last Tuesday in his office in Coral Gables, with the prototype of the Lionel Messi jersey. Eva Marie UZCATEGUI
Jorge Mas (Miami, 60 years old) appears in his office on the twelfth floor of an elegant tower in Coral Gables, South Florida, from which he overlooks the neighboring city of Miami, with a T-shirt, jeans and an apology: the air conditioning is on. broke and the heat is incompatible with wearing a suit and tie. From here he runs the engineering company MasTec (9.280 million dollars in market capitalization) and the designs of Inter Miami, a soccer team founded in 2018 of which he has owned and managed since 2021. He has just turned it upside down with the signing of Lionel Messi, who preferred his offer to the siren songs of Barcelona and the millions of Saudi Arabia.
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Mas, a Cuban-American businessman, is the son of Jorge Mas Canosa, a history of the first exile who died in 1997. He shares the dome of ownership of the team with his brother Jose and with former soccer player David Beckham. In recent weeks he has made progress in his plan to revolutionize the franchise, the city of Miami, the MLS (Major Soccer League) and the future of the sport in the United States with two other signings: midfielder Sergio Busquets, an old acquaintance of Messi, and the Argentine coach Tata Martino, who trained the star at Barça and at Albiceleste.
In the interview, with a view to the place where the construction of a new stadium for the club is planned, Mas assures that everything is ready to receive the star. He will debut on July 21 against the Mexican squad Cruz Azul amid unprecedented expectations and with sky-high sales. One of the last details to close was the design of the new 10 jersey, whose prototype rests behind the businessman’s table, among motivational phrases and books by Henry Kissinger and NBA coach Phil Jackson. Born in Miami 60 years ago, Mas, who also chairs Zaragoza, adds that the surprises have not ended and confirms that the Argentine’s contract amounts to “between 50 and 60 million a year”, an offer rounded off with the promise of a stake in the club when he retires and with a portion of the profits from the global broadcast, whose rights belong to Apple TV, as well as from the sale of the Adidas kit.
Ask. The most expensive signing in MLS history. Less than what Saudi Arabia offered?
Answer. They tell me [Sonríe].
P. From the beginning did you have in your head to bring Messi?
A. In 2019 we began to think about how we could bring it to Miami, a global city, on the rise. We want people to think of Miami when they think about soccer in the United States. You live well and it’s pure business. Everybody wants to move here.
Q. Taxation is favourable…
A. We do not pay local or state taxes… There is a very important family element. Messi will be in his hemisphere, almost at the same time as in [su ciudad] Rosary beads. It was more important to sell him the idea of soccer in the United States. This is the largest commercial market on the planet. Messi can turn MLS into one of the two or three biggest leagues in the world.
Q. Why will this time be different from the previous ones, like after the 1994 World Cup, when football seemed ready to conquer?
A. A lot has been invested. In the history of sports there are two events here: the arrival of Pelé to the New York Cosmos [en 1975] and that of David Beckham in 2007 in Los Angeles. Messi will raise the league to another level. I think he comes wanting to leave his mark, and he will be able to do it beyond football. When he retires he will have a stake in the club.
An Inter Miami cap, above the office of Cuban-American businessman Jorge Mas. Eva Marie UZCATEGUI
Q. It is the model that Beckham inaugurated… and ended up founding Inter.
R. I imagine a life after football for Messi very similar to David’s or Michael Jordan’s. You will be able to continue your work in a market that will not stop growing. You will have opportunities that are not available in other places.
Q. How was the courtship?
A. Long. I was three years. A year and a half, very intensely. Many conversations with Jorge [padre y representante del jugador]. I saw it done at the end of May. David was talking to Leo, only about football, because he was playing [en el Paris Saint Germain]. He didn’t want him to feel pressured. We have spoken in Barcelona, Miami, Rosario, Doha… I spent the entire World Cup in Qatar, watching Argentina. To close it, the Apple contract was very important.
Q. What percentage does the contract reserve for you?
A. I don’t know. On our part is the salary package and the participation when he retires. What I do know is that the conversations with Apple are going very well and that interests are aligning. If soccer grows in the United States, he will benefit. It’s fair.
Q. And the agreement with Adidas?
R. He was already an Adidas player. He will receive from the sale of jerseys, but that already works like that with other great athletes.
Q. What role did the MLS and the rest of the teams have in the signing? It was said that they had pitched in financially…
R. They have not put money. But, MLS has been key in helping with sponsorship.
Photo courtesy of Inter Miami CF, showing its new coach, Argentine Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino with Jorge Mas (left) and sports director Chris Henderson. Inter Miami CF (EFE/Inter Miami CF)
Q. Is it good for everyone?
A. Of course! I predict that club members will multiply by five or 10 in three years.
Q. With Latinos it will be easy, but what about the average American, whose attention is disputed by the NFL, baseball, the NBA…?
R. That guy is interested in the best player in the world. Here you can see a lot of the Premier, Laliga, the MX of Mexico. More than MLS. There are fans of Manchester United, Madrid, Barça… That is going to change.
Q. And you… what team are you from?
A. From Madrid. The love of soccer entered me at the Santiago Bernabéu in 1973. I have been white for many years, and I carry it in my heart, Florentino Pérez knows it. Now I’m pink and black [colores del Inter]. And becoming president of Zaragoza also changed my loyalties. I have grown fond of Zaragoza and extraordinary hands.
Q. What is your objective in your adventure in Zaragoza and how do you assess what has been achieved since your arrival, in 2022?
R. It is a well-assembled project in which I represent a group of investors [que incluye a Joseph Oughourlian presidente de Prisa, grupo editor de EL PAÍS]. The goal is clear: return to First Division. The base had to be polished; the Academy, the training center, the La Romareda project, very important. Not only for it to shine in the world potential of 2030, but for the city. Zaragoza deserves a course of the highest quality. My projection for the next five years: Zaragoza will have a leading stadium in Europe and a team in the First Division.
Q. What will Busquets contribute in Miami?
R. For us it was essential to surround Messi with players of his level. We have been talking to Busi for about a year. In the locker room it will be very important. Even more so for the boys of the academy.
Q. “Surround him with players.” Who is coming?
A. Two or three more.
Q. Jordi Alba?
R. They have spoken with Jordi Alba.
P. ¿Luis Suárez?
R. It is under contract, it has a clause, and I don’t know if that will come out. We have also spoken with Di María, but it seems that he is about to sign with another team. All announcements will be before July 15.
Q. Aren’t you afraid of generating a imbalance between the rest of the teams and Inter?
R. Leo’s arrival is good for everyone. It will generate interest among young and not so young footballers, who will want to come.
Q. Do you count in that calculation with the concatenation of the celebration in the United States of the Copa América of national teams, next year, of the Club World Cup, the following year, and the climax of the World Cup of national teams, in 2026, together with Mexico? and canada?
R. Yes… We are building a new stadium, which will cost 400 million. It will be much more convenient, next to the airport. The idea is to open it in autumn 2025.
Jorge Mas holds the ‘render’ of the new Inter Miami stadium. Eva Marie UZCATEGUI
Q. Will there be tours of the team in Europe or Asia?
R. Yes. In the preseason, which for us is in January or February.
Q. Now they play in a stadium 40 kilometers from Miami, with 18,000 seats. Will the new one satisfy the demand that is incubating?
R. We have increased its capacity, from the 23,000 of the project to 30,000. We have especially reinforced the VIP stands.
Q. With ticket prices skyrocketing… can that hinder the identification of the fans with the team?
R. We are going to try to hold them. This is a city of working men and women. Not just rich. I want the fans who have been with us from the beginning to be able to enjoy themselves. Tickets will get more expensive, but there will be more too. What happened with the ones from the first game is that only the first thousand had been released, and they went up in resale. I’m not a fan of the aftermarket, but it is what it is.
Q. Will the time come when MLS attracts names that are not in its decline?
R. There are Latin American players who have used the Portuguese league as a springboard to Europe. I trust they will come here now. They will want to continue going to the big clubs afterwards. I hope that in three years we will be the new platform for young players, specifically South Americans.
Q. What sporting bar do you set for Messi? The team, bottom of the Eastern Conference, is having a weak season…
R. We still have the opportunity to win two cups. We are in the semifinal that qualifies us for the Concacaf. In the league we are going to reach the playoffs, even if it is complicated.
Q. In Paris they were disappointed with your performance. And if here I was not up to it?
R. He is a competitive animal… in Paris he won, not the Champions League, but he did win. A single man does not win a Champions League. I can only speak for Miami, but I think what happened to him there is very sad. He doesn’t deserve to be whistled at the end of games.
Q. As president of the Cuban American National Foundation, the heart of anti-Castroism in Miami, how do you see the situation on the island?
A. Very complicated. My late father’s fight to achieve the freedom of the Cubans was an arduous fight of six decades. The biggest crime of the Castro regime has been family separation. We are burying a generation of Cubans who have lived far from their families. They couldn’t see them anymore. I always give the example of my mother. She left Cuba very young to come and marry my father. She never saw her father again. She doesn’t understand. Cuba could be an extremely advanced country. It is very sad, and here you live every day. Miami is the fruit of that exile.
Q. Have you ever been to Cuba?
R. No.
Q. And do you plan to go before a political change?
R. No, no.
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2023-07-02 03:15:00
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