Lionel Messi has won everything a football player needs to win in his career, but it would not be wrong to add one more.
The Argentine is nominated for the 2023 ESPY Awards for Best Athlete, Men's Sports category.
This is the first time the 36-year-old gets a nod from the American sports award show. He will compete for the award against Nikola Jokic of the NBA's Denver Nuggets, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs.
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Amongst all the nominees, Messi is the only one who did not play in an American league in the last sports season.
That will change this season as he just joined MLS club Inter Miami last month and is set to debut this July.
The Messi effect
It is not a stretch to say that ESPY only noticed Messi after his move to Miami. After all, his impact is already felt even before he set foot on an American football pitch.
The first is on Inter Miami's social media following. The American pro club before Messi had just over a million followers. It now has 8.5 million since June.
Inter Miami joined MLS only five years ago. LA Galaxy, which has been around since 1994 and is the league's winningest team, only has 1.5 million followers.
The ticket prices for games also skyrocketed. Vivid Seats pegged the most expensive ticket for a Messi game at $12,169 anywhere in America, a far cry from the $240 seat for another team.
Messi will make his debut against Cruz Azul on July 21.
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