{"id":256760,"date":"2026-05-03T16:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T16:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256760\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T16:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T16:52:08","slug":"soccer-superstar-lionel-messi-draws-crowd-at-f1-miami-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256760\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer superstar Lionel Messi draws crowd at F1 Miami Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Cup champion Lionel Messi<\/a> belongs to Argentina<\/a>, his home country.<\/p>\n

But since arriving in the U.S. three years ago to play for Inter Miami CF<\/a>, Messi has become a South Florida sensation. The global soccer<\/a> superstar led Inter Miami to the 2025 MLS Cup and is a two-time defending MLS MVP.<\/p>\n

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MORE: Every NFL stadium\u2019s new name for the FIFA World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

So Messi\u2019s celebrity visit to the paddock before F1\u2019s Miami<\/a> Grand Prix on Sunday, May 3, was not a surprise.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean it didn\u2019t cause an incredible stir among drivers and fans alike.<\/p>\n

A guest of Mercedes<\/p>\n

Messi attended the race with wife Antonela and their three sons just hours after scoring a goal during Inter<\/a> Miami\u2019s 4-3 loss to Orlando<\/a> FC. He is a guest of Mercedes \u2014 he owns non-racing versions of the car and has made promotional appearances on behalf of the brand \u2014 and took photos outside the garage.<\/p>\n

Due to a rainy forecast, the race was moved up three hours to 1 p.m. ET Sunday.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, Alpine F1 driver Franco Colapinto, who is from Argentina, made a dream come true when he met Messi at the Inter Miami training ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very special moment,\u201d Colaptino said, per Motorsport.com<\/a>. \u201cIt was something I had dreamt of all my life. If you ask any Argentinian who they want to meet, it\u2019s Leo. I had the chance,\u201d<\/p>\n

World Cup decision<\/p>\n

Up next for Messi is a decision about whether he will help Argentina defend its 2022 World Cup title. The Golden Ball winner has yet to announce whether he will play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want him to be there. It\u2019s up to him to decide,\u201d Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni said<\/a>. \u201cWe hope he will be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 World Cup will be played in the U.S., Canada<\/a> and Mexico<\/a> beginning June 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Cup champion Lionel Messi belongs to Argentina, his home country. But since arriving in the U.S. three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111525,4101,9984,14237,5429,1660,4392,123,125,124,139,9611],"class_list":["post-256760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-2022-world-cup","tag-argentina","tag-canada","tag-inter","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-lionel-messi","tag-mexico","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-orlando","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}