Lionel Messi is TIME's 2023 Athlete of the Year: What we learned about Inter Miami star

Lionel Messi, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and 2022 World Cup champion, has another honorable distinction to add to his resume.

TIME has named Messi the 2023 Athlete of the Year on Tuesday.

Messi, the Argentine superstar who left Paris Saint-Germain for Inter Miami this summer, drastically changed the growing soccer landscape in the United States this year.

“With the U.S. hosting three major international tournaments in the next three years (Copa America in 2024, the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025, and the grandest of them all, the World Cup, in 2026), it’s sure to attract even more fans. But Messi is an accelerant,” TIME's Sean Gregory writes in his cover story.  

“With the most revered and influential athlete on the planet playing in Miami for at least the next two years, still performing at the top of his game—he won another Ballon d’Or as the world’s player of the year, his eighth, in late October—the U.S. is now a soccer nation. A fútbol nation.”

What did Messi say during his TIME interview?

∎Messi said he had several options on the table after leaving PSG.

“My first option was to return to Barcelona, but it was not possible. I tried to return, and it did not happen. It is also true that later I was thinking a lot about going to the Saudi league …  It was Saudi Arabia or MLS, and both options seemed very interesting to me.”

∎Messi on life in the United States, particularly Miami:

“For now, we can’t complain about anything. Perhaps the most difficult thing to adapt to may be the traffic, although in Paris it was also complicated. And then the heat and humidity in the summer. Although being on the beach or on vacation can often be pleasant, for playing sports, training or playing games, especially in the summer, perhaps it is a little too much, and that shows.”

∎As for the 2024 season, the 36-year-old said:

“The most important thing right now is to recover well physically and also mentally, rest, spend time with my family, with my friends and then think about returning with the same desire as always and with some special challenges ahead.”

What did we learn about Messi in the TIME article?

The article explores Messi’s decision to choose Major League Soccer over options in Barcelona and Saudi Arabia, and the crucial roles Inter Miami co-owners Jorge Mas and David Beckham had in the negotiations.

Mas kept in touch with Messi’s father, and got face time with Messi during an Argentine pre-World Cup training session in September 2022.

Mas also attended every Argentina game at the World Cup and secured a spot in Messi’s box for the final, according to the article.

“There was a certain trend of thought that said, ‘Oh my god, if Messi wins a World Cup, well, (expletive), we’ll never land Messi,’” Mas said. “If he wins the World Cup, I’m 1,000% convinced that we’re good because it’s the crowning achievement. He needed a new chapter. Completely different. Blank pages.”

Messi is paid more than $20 million annually from Inter Miami, and will be granted an ownership stake in the team upon retirement, along with revenue shares from Apple, according to TIME.