The Messi effect helped Inter Miami rise more than 700 places on the world club rankings

Since Messi joined, Inter Miami has gone 12 unbeaten matches in all competitions. With Messi, the team won the Leagues Cup title. In MLS Eastern Region, despite not having Messi in the most recent match, Inter Miami still extended their unbeaten streak by winning 10 points in 4 consecutive matches and has a chance to compete for a ticket to the knockout round.

The wins put Inter Miami as the team with the strongest advancement on the Opta Power rankings among MLS teams. Inter Miami's specific position updated on September 11, 2023 on the Opta Power rankings is 181. The South Florida team has increased 710 places before and after having Messi in the squad.

The Opta Power rankings are a ranking system for nearly 13,500 clubs in 413 professional and semi-professional tournaments in 183 countries around the world. Opta uses the Power Rankings index to rank clubs around the world, thereby giving a view of the correlation between teams even if they have never met each other. Clubs are scored from 0 to 100 based on the Elo coefficient similar to chess and the quality of tournaments and federations. Opta Power Rankings are updated daily, and according to data on September 11, 2023, Man City is ranked first with 100 points. Inter Miami ranked 181st with 77.9 points.

Not only creating a professional difference, Messi is also bringing positive commercial effects to Inter Miami and MLS in general. Ticket prices for matches with Messi continuously break records, the number of users registering for MLS Pass on Apple TV increases exponentially, and Messi's number 10 jersey becomes scarce. Forbes currently values ​​Inter Miami at about 600 million USD, the 11th highest in MLS. According to club co-owner Jorge Mas, the club's value could increase by $1.3 to $1.5 billion next year.