Lionel Messi Sent Cristiano Ronaldo Taunt Over MLS Influence by Ex-Inter Miami Player

Brek Shea played with Inter Miami until 2022, the year before Lionel Messi signed with the club.

Lionel Messi (left) has helped grow the profile of MLS, but could Cristano Ronaldo (right) have done more? / Elsa/Getty Images, Wun Suen/AFP/Getty Images

Brek Shea, a former U.S. men’s national team midfielder and ex-MLS journeyman, is confident that Cristiano Ronaldo could have had a bigger impact on the league than Lionel Messi has enjoyed at Inter Miami. 

Shea, who won 34 caps for the USMNT and played for Inter Miami until 2022, a year before Messi arrived, suggested that the Portuguese and former Real Madrid star could have helped the league grow more significantly, with his personality, brand and social media reach. 

“I think Cristiano Ronaldo would have had a bigger impact on MLS than Lionel Messi,” he told Spanish outlet MARCA. “No disrespect to Messi, but Messi seems like a homebody.”

“He’s very quiet. He still doesn’t speak the language well. So I just think Ronaldo seems more outgoing, he does more things in the public eye.”

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Cristiano Ronaldo’s MLS Flirtation

President Trump (left) and Cristiano Ronaldo met in the Oval Office. / @WhiteHouse on X

Ronaldo’s potential in MLS has been raised plenty of times before. In 2022, with Ronaldo at Juventus, Sporting Kansas City sought to bring him to the league and were prepared to offer a similar deal, including separate business ventures in addition to salary, as Messi has received in Miami. 

Instead, Ronaldo opted to sign with Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, where he earns an extravagant salary and receives additional benefits alongside his primary income. His most recent two-year contract extension with the Saudi Arabian side is reportedly worth $400 million. 

Messi, meanwhile, earns $20.5 million in salary from Miami per season and also receives portions from Apple TV subscriptions for MLS matches and other benefits. 

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Ronaldo spent almost a decade publicly away from the United States. After celebrating Portugal’s Euro 2016 triumph in Las Vegas, it wasn’t until a highly publicized visit to the White House in November that Ronaldo was again spotted in the U.S. The veteran forward is set to return to the U.S. in the public eye once again in March as Portugal faces the USMNT in a pre-World Cup friendly in Atlanta. 

“I think just for [those] reasons, speaking the language, giving interviews, I think he would have automatically had a bigger impact,” Shea added, tipping Messi’s history of infrequent interviews and lack of English in the media. “I’m talking strictly about things off the field. I don’t know if he would have achieved the same numbers, but a bigger impact? Yes, he would have had that.”

Since arriving in MLS, Messi has won two MLS MVP awards, a Golden Boot, and helped Miami win the MLS Cup, the Supporters’ Shield, and the Leagues Cup, while racking up 50 goals and 35 assists in 53 regular-season games. 

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