Messi helps set MLS attendance record, trains with Argentina for upcoming games

MIAMI — Major League Soccer announced Monday that it set a regular-season attendance record of more than 11 million fans with 16 matches yet to be played. It comes as no surprise that Inter Miami star Lionel Messi had a massive impact on ticket sales.

The overall average MLS attendance this season is up to 23,240, surpassing last year’s then-record 22,111 in Messi’s first year. Opponents hosting Inter Miami this season have drawn an average of 38,085 fans in those games.

Ten games featured at least 45,000 fans and Inter Miami was involved in six of those.

Five of them featured more than 50,000 fans, three exceeded 60,000 fans and the highest-attended game was Inter Miami at Sporting Kansas City, which drew 72,601 at Arrowhead Stadium on April 13. Messi scored in a 3-2 Miami win.

That was the fourth-largest standalone crowd in league history. Sporting KC typically plays home matches at Children’s Mercy Park, with a soccer capacity of 18,467, but the game vs. Miami was moved to Arrowhead in anticipation of Messi’s arrival.

A crowd of 67,795 showed up at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sept. 18 to see Atlanta United against Messi and his Miami teammates.

A New England Revolution record crowd of 65,612 was on hand at Gillette Stadium on April 27 and saw Messi score twice in a 4-1 Inter Miami victory.

The Vancouver Whitecaps (51,035) and Chicago Fire (55,385) both drew season-high crowds against Inter Miami, but fans who purchased tickets hoping to see Messi were disappointed as he did not travel to either game.

Messi, Luis Suarez and Sergio Busquets stayed home from the Vancouver game to rest during a busy stretch of the season. Irate Vancouver fans expressed their displeasure on social media and booed every time a Miami player touched the ball early in the game.

Messi fans in Chicago were heartbroken for a second year in a row.

Last season, a sellout crowd of 61,000 showed up at Soldier Field, but Messi was injured and stayed home. This year, the Fire was prepared for the possibility of another Messi no-show. The 55,385 fans who bought tickets were told that if Messi didn’t play, they would receive one of three perks: credit toward season-ticket membership, complimentary tickets to the Fire’s fan appreciation match in October, or single-match tickets to next year’s matchup against Inter Miami.

Last week, there was some question whether Messi would play in the road game against Toronto on Saturday as he had played in five games in a row after returning from a long injury layoff. The BMO Field crowd of 30,217 erupted in cheers when he came off the bench at the 60-minute mark.

Surely, MLS and Apple TV executives did the same.

Messi, Suarez, Callender, Martino up for MLS awards

Nine Inter Miami players and coach Tata Martino are among the nominees for the MLS year-end awards. Here is the list:

— Landon Donovan MLS MVP: Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez

— Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year: Tata Martino

— Audi Goals Drive Progress Impact Award: Drake Callender

— MLS Newcomer of the Year: Luis Suárez and Matías Rojas

— MLS Comeback Player of the Year: Ian Fray

— MLS Young Player of the Year: Diego Gómez and Federico Redondo

— MLS Defender of the Year: Jordi Alba and Tomás Avilés

— MLS Goalkeeper of the Year: Drake Callender

Golden Boot Race

With two weekends remaining in the regular season, Christian Benteke of D.C. United leads the MLS Golden Boot race for top scorer with 23 goals. Denis Bouanga of LAFC and Cucho Hernandez of Columbus Crew are tied for second with 19 goals each. Inter Miami forward Luis Suarez is in third place with 18 goals in his debut MLS season. Messi is right behind Suarez with 17 goals in 18 games, tied for fourth with Cristian Arango of Real Salt Lake and Daniel Gazdag of the Philadelphia Union.

Between them, Messi and Suarez have 35 goals and 22 assists this season. Inter Miami is off this week for the FIFA break and aims to make MLS history in its regular-season finale at home Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. against the Revolution. With a win, Miami breaks the league record for points (73), which was set by New England in 2021. Miami has 71 points.

Miami opens the playoffs at home Oct. 25 against the winner of the Eastern Conference wild card play-in game.

Tickets for the home finale and playoff opener are available through TicketMaster and secondary online ticket outlets.

Messi, Argentina training at Inter Miami facilities

Messi did not have to travel far to train with the Argentina national team for its upcoming World Cup qualifying matches. The Argentines are training at Inter Miami’s Florida Blue Training Center in Fort Lauderdale through Wednesday before heading to qualifiers against Venezuela on Oct. 10 and Bolivia on Oct. 15.

Messi is one of five Inter Miami players who was called up for national team duty, along with Diego Gomez (Paraguay), Leo Campana (Ecuador), David Ruiz (Honduras), and Benja Cremaschi (USA Under-20).