Lionel Messi’s debut for Inter Miami was one for the ages, as he scored an amazing last-minute free-kick, but some clueless American influencers seem to have termed him as the ‘MLS captain’ after that.
Leo has decided to improve the quality and awareness of football (or soccer) in the USA with his move, but it’s clear that a lot of the youthful audience are still very clueless.
Messi has been on a roll since joining the MLS side, having scored three goals in two appearances for them. His debut, however, had fans talking for a long time and became viral almost immediately after taking place. Messi scored a brilliant free-kick from close range in the 94th to help Inter defeat Club Azul in the USA League Cup game.
What did the ‘Ireland Boys’ say about Leo Messi’s Inter Miami debut?
However, some people seem to have a widely different assessment of that game and how managed to win the game for his new side. Soon after that game, two American-Vietnamese podcasters known as the ‘Ireland Boys’ decided to discuss Messi’s heroics in one of their podcast.
The two run the ‘It is what it is’ podcast, with their YouTube channel having over 100,000 subscribers. In one of their TikTok videos on Messi’s debut, one of the podcasters is heard starting a debate on whether the result was rigged and set up for Leo two the game for his side.
This soon transitioned into a bizarre debate where the absolutely clueless podcasters claimed that Messi scored a ‘penalty’ and that the penalty takers are decided on the basis of who is the captain.
They said: “So Messi. It’s his first game in the MLS. The game it’s tied up. So when it’s tied up it goes to penalty kicks, right? Messi, he comes in and scores the winning penalty kick.”
After this, a third member of the podcast makes a bold claim stating that ‘Messi is going to be the new captain of the MLS’, to which the two podcasters look quite hyped up by.
In all these instances, these clueless podcasters couldn’t be more wrong. There is no ‘captain’ of the MLS because nobody can captain an entire league, while their deduction on who takes the penalty is woefully wrong too.
The Messi assessment has shades of outrageous Christian Pulisic Pawn Stars episode
At this point, fans are absolutely disgusted by this and are finding it hard to believe whether it was actually real or some trolling done to make the clip go viral.
What this bit of shockingly delusion take does remind us of, however, could be a throwback to when Christian Pulisic’s Chelsea jersey was featured in one of the episodes of the hit TV show, Pawn Stars.
In season 19 of Pawn Stars, a signed Christian Pulisic jersey was brought on to find its valuation. The host, Corey ‘Big Hoss’ Harrison made a claim that Pulisic is like the ‘Lebron James of Soccer’, which could not be any more wrong considering the USMNT star has never been among the best players in the world.
Even the person who brought the jersey makes some ridiculous claim that Pulisic plays in ‘centre midfield’, when that has never been the case. Pulisic is even compared to Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, when he’s never been close to matching their heights.
These instances, especially the Messi one, shows that a lot of Americans are yet to get a proper grasp of how football (or soccer) really works and it’ll probably take something more than the great one himself to make USA a proper footballing country.
