(CNN Spanish) — David Beckham was the obvious face of the management that brought Lionel Messi to Inter Miami. Beckham is one of the co-owners of the club and can be considered the image of the team off the pitch.
The former English footballer is the club’s chairman of football operations in addition to being the owner.
That’s how Beckham came to Inter Miami
Beckham has owned Inter since the team’s launch in MLS in 2018, but In 2021 Along with Jorge and Jose Mas, he took full control after the trio bought the shares of the company from Marcelo Clare and Masayoshi Son.
In 2013, after announcing his retirement from football, Beckham first dreamed of bringing a new team to Miami, a difficult process that finally came to fruition in 2020, when Inter Miami CF played its inaugural game against Major League Soccer (MLS). LAFC.
Beckham, who had a clause in his contract to form a new team when he joined LA Galaxy from Real Madrid in 2007, certainly breathed a sigh of relief when he did.
“It’s been a long and difficult journey at times,” he told Caroline Manno CNN Sports in 2020. “One thing I never doubted was Miami,” Beckham said.
“Miami will always be the place, Miami will always be our city.”
“We have an incredible fan base that’s culturally diverse and what Miami is about, and we want to maintain that. That’s what makes Miami and South Florida special. The specialness, the culture and the diversity that it brings to the city,” Beckham told CNN in 2020.
Beckham looked north of Miami to see how soccer could take over an American city. Atlanta United joined the league in 2014 and won its first MLS Cup in 2018 with attendance averaging over 50,000 that season.
“This is the next step in my MLS journey. I was successful as a player of the LA Galaxy and now I want to be successful as an owner.”
Beckham, the first global superstar to play in the United States with Manchester United and Real Madrid, won two MLS Cups with the LA Galaxy.
And Beckham had family company in the project. His son Romeo (20 years old), today at Brentford in the Premier League, featured in this year’s squad for MLS Next Pro’s Inter Miami II.
Joining Beckham are the Mas Santos brothers as team owners.
Jorge Mas Santos, a Cuban-American businessman, is the club’s managing owner. Jorge Mas Santos is also the president Cuban American National Foundation (FNCA) or Chairman of the Company MasTec Since 1984 President of Real ZaragozaA football club in Spain’s second division.
For his part, José Ramón Mas Santos is CEO of MasTec and part of the US Department of Commerce’s National Advisory Committee on Minority Businesses.
With reporting by CNN’s Uriel Blanco and George Ramsey
