{"id":393235,"date":"2025-11-20T22:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T22:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/393235\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T22:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T22:40:13","slug":"who-is-the-best-soccer-player-in-the-world-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/393235\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the best soccer player in the world? \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Inter Miami with Lionel Messi is scheduled to play Real Salt Lake in Utah next year.<\/li>\n<li>Messi is one of the greatest and most popular soccer players of all time.<\/li>\n<li>Several international soccer stars now play for Major League Soccer teams.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Some of the best soccer players in the world are making their way from Europe to play on Major League Soccer teams as the sport gains momentum in the U.S. amid transformational changes over the next couple of years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">And one of those players will bring his talents from South Beach when his club takes on Real Salt Lake at America First Field next spring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">RSL released its 2026 schedule Thursday, the last season MLS will play before transitioning to a new competition calendar in 2027. The club will play a 34-game MLS regular-season schedule, with 17 matches at home and 17 away, starting Feb. 21 in Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50;background-color:#F3F1F0;cursor:pointer\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/QNCFMMEXJNHBTOB56TEOGPEMSI.jpeg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Real Salt Lake and Utah Royals FC President John Kimball speaks to the media Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 at America First Field in Sandy. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">April 22 is the date to circle. That\u2019s when Inter Miami CF comes to town with the best player in the world, Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt is a can\u2019t-miss event,\u201d said Steve Starks, CEO of the Larry H. Miller Company, which owns RSL. \u201cHe\u2019s the Beatles. He\u2019s Elvis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Who is Lionel Messi?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 38-year-old Argentine forward is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history. His many accolades include leading Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title. He played for Barcelona in the Spanish league for many years before moving on to Paris Saint-Germain in France. He joined Inter Miami in 2023. He led MLS in both goals and assists in the 2025 regular season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cMany of us recall iconic sports moments in our lifetimes. Watching the great Lionel Messi play in the heart of the Wasatch will be inspiring to fans, young players and our community at large,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deseret.com\/utah\/2023\/12\/12\/23902585\/larry-miller-company-steve-miller-build-utah-jazz-baseball-daybreak-legos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.deseret.com\/utah\/2023\/12\/12\/23902585\/larry-miller-company-steve-miller-build-utah-jazz-baseball-daybreak-legos\/\">Steve Miller<\/a>, RSL chairman and governor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Messi just signed a three-year contract extension that will keep him in Miami until he\u2019s almost 42 as the team builds a $1 billion stadium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt makes me really happy to stay here and to continue with this project that, besides being a dream, has become a beautiful reality \u2014 playing in this stadium, at Miami Freedom Park,\u201d Messi said in a team statement. \u201cSince I arrived in Miami, I\u2019ve been very happy, so I\u2019m truly glad to keep going here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Messi along with South Korea\u2019s Son Heung-Min of Los Angeles FC and Germany\u2019s Thomas M\u00fcller of the Vancouver Whitecaps are among the international stars who have signed with MLS teams in the past year or so. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Son and M\u00fcller will make appearances with their teams in Utah, as will Mexican star Chucky Lozano of San Diego FC and another German standout, Marco Reus, with the LA Galaxy.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Starks said he expects the Inter Miami game alone to boost season and single-game ticket sales. Messi is arguably the most famous athlete on the planet. Utah hasn\u2019t seen a worldwide megastar like him since Michael Jordan played against the Jazz in the 1990s. RSL did not play Inter Miami this past season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Season tickets and four-game packages, including the Inter Miami game, can be accessed through the club\u2019s priority ticket waitlist at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rsl.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.rsl.com\/\">RSL.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cNext year\u2019s slate brings players and teams to the pitch that will unite and inspire our local sports and entertainment community,\u201d said John Kimball, RSL president of business operations. \u201dMajor League Soccer is on the rise, and today\u2019s announcement highlights this momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Messi\u2019s anticipated arrival to play RSL is scheduled just weeks before Argentina will defend its title as the 2026 World Cup takes over the United States. Utah won\u2019t host any games because it doesn\u2019t have an NFL stadium. But Starks said several countries have inquired about taking up residence at the RSL training facility for the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>MLS aligns itself with the world<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Starting in 2027, MLS will align its season with world\u2019s top soccer leagues, adopting a summer-to-spring schedule, one of the most significant developments in the league\u2019s history. It also will have a 14-game sprint season in spring 2027 ahead of the new regular season format.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MLS commissioner Don Garber said the change marks a new era for the league and soccer in North America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cAligning our schedule with the world\u2019s top leagues will strengthen our clubs\u2019 global competitiveness, create better opportunities in the transfer market, and ensure our Audi MLS Cup Playoffs take center stage without interruption,\u201d he said in a statement last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 2027-28 MLS regular season will begin in mid to late July 2027 and conclude with the playoffs in late May 2028. Like other major international leagues, it will take a winter break from mid-December through early February, with no league matches scheduled in January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Starks said that the new schedule that allows greater player transfers back and forth is important because MLS increasingly attracts the best players in the world. It also moves the playoffs to warmer weather in May and out of the shadow of the NFL and college football seasons, which dominate the airwaves and sponsorship dollars in the fall. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s important because people love the intrigue and drama of playoffs and so this places it in a much better playoff window on the calendar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">It also helps gain sponsors that are otherwise crowded out in November, making for a stronger commercial aspect to the playoffs, which Starks said is important for the growth of the league.<\/p>\n<p>Baby, it\u2019s cold outside<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The schedule change will impact RSL, which could find itself playing home games in winter conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt will be an adjustment. It will also be a home field advantage,\u201d said Starks, adding he anticipates few home games in the cold weather. He also expects fans will turn out regardless. \u201cWe have a very loyal fan base,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that, even in colder weather games.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Dave Checketts, who founded RSL in 2005 and sold the club in 2013, said aligning the MLS schedule with the world\u2019s leagues is long overdue. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s never felt right to be on a different calendar than the rest of the world,\u201d he said, adding the league discussed it 22 years ago. \u201cI just never dreamed that it could happen because you\u2019ve got all these cold-weather cities. Actually, Utah is better off, in my view, than Chicago or Boston or even New York.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Checketts said it\u2019s the right thing to do because it lines up international transfer windows. \u201cYou just won\u2019t have your best players leaving you in the middle of competition to go play for their international teams,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re playing in the summer, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen and it creates an uneven playing field for all of the teams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inter Miami with Lionel Messi is scheduled to play Real Salt Lake in Utah next year. Messi is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":393236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[1681,974,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-393235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-news-division","9":"tag-news-feed-national","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115584436662952664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}