THAT THIS MOMENT UNFOLDED, ON JULY 21, 2023, in Fort Lauderdale still feels surreal. Lionel Messi, in his first game wearing a pink Inter Miami jersey, was awarded a free kick in the final seconds of his Major League Soccer (MLS) debut. Here was the greatest living soccer player, arguably the best to ever play the world's most popular game, who last year led Argentina to its first World Cup win in nearly four decades, suiting up for a last-place club in the U.S.
Before the kick, Inter Miami defender DeAndre Yedlin, who played in that same World Cup for the U.S., went to the sideline with a cramp in his right calf. He cautioned his coach, Gerardo "Tata" Martino, against selecting him to take a penalty kick after regulation inevitably ended in a 1-1 draw between Inter Miami and Cruz Azul at the Leagues Cup, a tournament featuring teams from MLS and Mexico's Liga MX. Martino, who was familiar with Messi's magic from managing him for Argentina and FC Barcelona, told Yedlin not to worry: Messi was going to put this shot in the back of the net and end the game. "I was like, OK," says Yedlin, not at all convinced.
This story is from the December 25, 2023 edition of Time.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 25, 2023 edition of Time.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
An exuberant ode to human possibility
VERY RARELY DOES THE RIGHT MOVIE ARRIVE AT precisely the right time, at a moment when compassion is in short supply and the collective human imagination has come to feel shrunken and desiccated.
Broadcasting a crisis for the world to see
ON SEPT. 5, 1972, A 32-YEAR-OLD PRODUCER NAMED Geoffrey S. Mason was working in a control room for ABC Sports in Munich while 12 hostages, including several members of the Israeli Olympic delegation, were being held in a building nearby.
The Power of the Peer
WITH MENTAL-HEALTH CARE IN SHORT SUPPLY, CAN REGULAR PEOPLE FILL THE GAP?
QUEERING THE STORY
Luca Guadagnino directs Daniel Craig in an adaptation of William S. Burroughs' 1985 novella Queer
Shopping under the influence
LTK CO-FOUNDER AMBER VENZ BOX SAW THE FUTURE OF RETAIL. IT TOOK YEARS FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD TO CATCH UP
The Kingmaker
Elon Musk's partnership with the President-elect
Turkey's Erdogan plots his next power grab
RECEP TAYYIP Erdogan is a political survivor.
Why maiden names matter in the age of AI and identity
IN THE DIGITAL AGE, A NAME IS MORE THAN JUST A label. It's tied to our professional history and social media presence.
The D.C. Brief
INSIDE DONALD TRUMP'S ORBIT, it's become a given that the former and future President can bypass Congress to magically fill his Cabinet with the loyalists of his choosing.
Let's embrace vulnerability in dating
AS A DATING COACH AND THE DIRECTOR OF RELATIONship science at Hinge, I often hear from people who feel like there's something big they need to disclose on early dates-chronic illness, mental-health struggles, college debt, family estrangement, lack of romantic experience, or trauma.
