FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lionel Messi’s legacy was lengthy secured when he got here to Inter Miami and joined Main League Soccer.
He’d received a World Cup, received dozens of trophies, was typically thought of the best participant within the sport’s historical past.
He didn’t want an MLS Cup.
However he wished one — and acquired it.
Messi and Inter Miami have accomplished their ascent, beating the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 on Saturday within the MLS Cup closing for the franchise’s first championship. It got here 2 1/2 years after the legend arrived in South Florida, a transfer that shocked loads of onlookers on the time.
He arrange the title-clinching objective with a 72nd-minute help to Rodrigo De Paul, a play the place Messi stole the ball and threaded a move by a tiny hole in a wall of Vancouver defenders.
De Paul acquired it in stride, pushed it into the far nook of the web — and Messi went airborne to hop into his arms a number of seconds later, all smiles.
And because the closing minutes ticked away, Inter Miami’s pink-clad followers — most sporting Messi’s No. 10 on their backs — stood and stomped and cheered.
South Florida has seen NFL and NBA and Main League Baseball and NHL titles previously.
It’s a soccer city now, too. Messi made that occur. Tadeo Allende scored within the sixth minute of stoppage time — off one other Messi help, after all — to make it 3-1.
Inter Miami turned the sixteenth franchise within the league’s 30-year historical past to win an MLS title.
And this extends a run of parity for MLS, which has seen 5 completely different franchises win championships within the final 5 years and eight franchises declare a title within the final 9 seasons — solely Columbus has received twice in that span.
