Inter Miami attended a White House reception today to celebrate winning the MLS Cup for the first time in club history, with captain Lionel Messi presenting a gift to President Donald Trump. The World Cup winner entered the East Room alongside Trump and Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas and later handed the president a signature Miami pink soccer ball.
Trump received a Miami jersey and a watch from Mas and head coach Javier Mascherano.
The U.S president confessed that his son is a big Messi fan who has been following him for many years.
Trump said, “We’re honoring truly talented people. It’s my distinct privilege to say what no American president has ever had the chance to say before: ‘Welcome to the White House, Lionel Messi.’
My son said, ‘Dad, do you know who’s going to be there today?’ I said, ‘No, I got a lot of things going on.’ He said, ‘Messi.’
He’s a big fan of yours. He thinks you’re just a great person. And I think you got to meet a little while ago. So he’s a big soccer fan, but he’s a tremendous fan of yours. And a gentleman named Ronaldo. Cristiano is great. You’re great.
Leo, you came in and you won, and that’s something very hard to do, very, very unusual and frankly, there’s a lot more pressure put on you than anyone would know, because you sort of expected to win, but almost nobody wins.”
WOW.
Lionel Messi, also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record seven Ballon d’Or awards and a record six European Golden Shoes, and in 2020 he was named to the Ballon d’Or Dream Team.
Until leaving the club in 2021, he had spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he won a club-record 35 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles and the UEFA Champions League four times.
With his country, he won the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 FIFA World Cup. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (474), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (eight), and most assists in La Liga (192) and the Copa América (17).
He also has the most international goals by a South American male (103). Messi has scored over 800 senior career goals for club and country, and has the most goals by a player for a single club (672).
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