Messi sells 35,000 Jamaican Tickets, But WIll Inter Miami’s Star Be There?

Lionel Messi

and Inter Miami CF

may play more competitively important matches in 2025. But perhaps none will have more of a big-event feel than when the eight-time Ballon d’or Winner and his Herons visit the National Stadium in Kingston in Leg 2 of their Concacaf Champions Cup match on March 13.

Here’s everything to know about the historic clash, including how the availability of Messi, Suarez and others might be determined.

Why is Inter Miami Playing in Jamaica?

Cavalier FC is their next opponent in the CCC, Concacaf’s top club tournament

Inter Miami gained entrance to the CCC by virtue of winning the 2024 Supporters’ Shield. Cavalier FC, who played FC Cincinnati

in last year’s competition, secured the lone first-round bye for the Caribbean region by winning the 2024 Concacaf Caribbean Cup.

Miami will play Leg 1 against the Jamaican champions this Thursday in South Florida, with the return leg to come in Jamaica a week later. The winner of the series will be decided by aggregate goals, with away goals scored to be used as the first tiebreaker. If the teams are tied on both aggregate and away goals following 180 minutes, the teams will progress to 30 minutes of extra time and potentially penalties in the second leg in Kingston.

35,000-Seat Stadium Sold Out

The National Stadium is Jamaica’s biggest venue

Cavalier FC plays its home league matches at a 3,000-capacity venue on the same complex as the Jamaica National Stadium. But it’s common for Jamaican sides to play Concacaf games at the 35,000-seat National Stadium due to continental venue standards.

It is far less common for those games to sell out. But with the prospect of an unprecedented chance to see Messi in person, tickets for the match sold out less than hour after Miami completed its first-round aggregate victory over Sporting Kansas City

on Tuesday night.

Jamaica’s Biggest-Ever Soccer Match?

It’s up there, but maybe not No. 1

Messi’s visit is almost certainly the most-hyped match played in Jamaica in the last decade. Even the Reggae Boyz Jamaica national team typically fails to pack the National Stadium for important qualifying matches in Concacaf, given that the program has not come all that close to qualifying for a World Cup in recent cycles. And when they’re not playing qualifiers or Concacaf Nations League games, Jamaica is often forced to travel for its higher-profile international matches, given the greater potential to generate ticket revenue elsewhere.

But the Reggae Boyz did famously qualify for the 1998 World Cup with a squad led by England-based players Deon Burton, Robbie Earle, Theo Whitmore and Ricardo Gardner.

And they secured their passage to France ’98 at the National Stadium on the final day of Concacaf Hexagonal play, drawing Mexico 0-0 on Nov. 16, 1997 to ensure a third-place finish ahead of El Salvador. Then-prime minister P.J. Patterson declared the following day a national holiday.

So that day probably exceeds the potential for March 13. But this may well be the biggest club match in Jamaican history. No Jamaican team has ever even reached a continental (although other Caribbean clubs did in the earlier days of Concacaf competition.)

Will Messi Really Play?

The Leg 1 result could matter a lot

The Herons and manager Javier Mascherano have up to five competitions in total to manage this season (if you count the MLS

regular season and MLS Cup

Playoffs separately), and the fact that Miami won 2-0 in the opening leg could be bad news for Jamaica fans.

With Miami ahead on aggregate, a totally plausible outcome given the disparity in talent between the two sides. This would be Messi’s next three matches if the Herons advance past the Round of 16:

Charlotte and Atlanta so far are shaping up to be two of Miami’s bigger rivals for Eastern Conference supremacy. And Messi has previously made clear his intention to continue international duty so long as he continues to be invited. So, in a world where there is little practical chance of Cavalier earning a Leg 2 result good enough to eliminate Miami, Mascherano could logically elect to field a team of mostly reserves and keep Messi, Luis Suarez

and others on the bench.

It also helps Jamaican fans’ hopes that the flight from Miami to Kingston — at just under two hours of flight time — is shorter than many of the Herons’ MLS trips.

Can Cavalier FC Pull a Shock?

Probably not, but never say never

Teams from MLS have a significant talent advantage in this kind of match, but the history of Concacaf play has shown that MLS competitors overlook Caribbean opposition at their own peril.

One of the largest such upsets occurred in 2023, when Violette AC of Haiti pulled off arguably the biggest upset in the Concacaf club history, winning their first leg 3-0 against Austin FC

in a “home” match that had to be relocated to the Dominican Republic, then managing a narrower 2-0 defeat at Austin in the return leg to complete the 3-2 win on aggregate.

Related

Lionel Messi Handed Fine For Behaviour After Inter Miami v New York City

The Inter Miami star wasn’t happy at all after the 2-2 draw