Lionel Andres Messi just dropped a comic-book season on MLS Golden Boot with 29, joint-assist leader with 19, and an odds-on MVP again. At 38, that’s bonkers output anywhere, let alone in a parity league.
Here’s the twist: the U.S. sports needle barely twitched. League brass touted “120,000 unique viewers per match” and “50% up year over year,” but that’s a fuzzy metric, not average audience and the league is literally making the entire postseason free for all Apple TV subscribers to widen the funnel. Translation: still hunting real reach.
Multiple reports also note a year-over-year attendance dip and a broader reality check: Messi’s weekly sorcery creates viral clips, not necessarily new die-hard MLS fans (yet).
As a lifer who’s watched him warp defenses since teenage La Pulga days, I’ll say this: the football is historic. The ecosystem around it distribution, narrative, stakes has to rise to meet him.
Give us crackling playoff nights, real rivalries, smarter storytelling. Let Messi’s genius be the spark, not the whole fire. And if you still aren’t watching… you’re missing the best to ever lace them in our backyard.
