Ahead of the special game, presented in partnership with Tatler Asia, we take a look at the team’s spectacle journey: from signing football legend Lionel Messi under the leadership of co-owners David Beckham, Jorge and Jose Mas, to what fans can look forward to at the highly anticipated match
Yes, major international football clubs have visited Hong Kong to play here before. In fact, the city has even hosted a major international tournament (1956’s inaugural AFC Asian Cup—the home team finished third out of four, fact fans). Each and every one of those illustrious games, though, is likely to fade in the memory like an uneventful scoreless draw in the Hong Kong Third Division by comparison with the frenzy that will be generated when Inter Miami CF touch down for their match at Hong Kong Stadium on February 4.
That’s largely because it has among its playing and management ranks two of the most instantly recognisable faces not just in the game but in the world: the team’s co-owner and ubiquitous public face, David Beckham; and the best player of the 21st century bar none, Lionel Messi. Presented in partnership with Tatler Asia, the match will see Messi and his teammates line up against an invitation-only Best of Hong Kong Soccer 11.
“Hong Kong has such a great sports scene,” says Beckham. “In partnership with Tatler, we are pleased to be able to bring the team to this fantastic city as part of Inter Miami’s debut game in Asia.”
“We’re very excited to be visiting Hong Kong and indeed Asia for the very first time,” says Jorge Mas, Inter Miami CF’s managing owner. “From the very beginning we set out to be a global club at Inter Miami. This is a wonderful opportunity to do just that; we hope to enthuse and inspire new Inter Miami fans in Hong Kong and across Asia who share our passion for football.”
Inter Miami CF currently plays home matches at DRV PNK Stadium in the City of Fort Lauderdale and is in the midst of bringing its new stadium, Miami Freedom Park, to life in 2025. The Club was founded in 2018 and played its first match just a few years ago, beginning its Major League Soccer (MLS) journey in 2020. An ownership group led by Miami natives Jorge and Jose Mas and English football legend David Beckham brought the team into existence and have since helped it grow exponentially, leading to the landmark signing of now-eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi in the summer of 2023. The rapid ascent continued following the signing, with the team going on to win its first-ever title, triumphing in the first edition of the new Leagues Cup tournament, and subsequently hosting its first-ever final at DRV PNK Stadium in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
For anyone who’s been living in a cave for the past 20 years, Messi is simply one of the greatest players ever to have kicked a football. An eight-time winner of the Ballon d’Or, given to the world’s best player of a particular year, he combines a ruthless goalscoring instinct with almost supernatural levels of creativity, vision and balance. A legend at his former club Barcelona, where he won a mind-warping 34 competitions, including ten La Liga titles, he also has a faintly ridiculous 106 international goals for Argentina, capped off when he captained his nation to the 2022 World Cup.