A year and a half has been enough time for Leo Messi to become Inter Miami’s all-time leading scorer. David Beckham’s project has qualified for the play-offs for the MLS title after winning the Supporters Shield, which rewards the best team in the regular season, and faces its first play-offs with the Argentine as its main exponent. The period in which he compares himself to the rest is still young, although he has been making an impact since his arrival in July 2023.
The hat trick he scored against the New England Revolution off the bench put him ahead of Leonardo Campana in the leading position. Further down the table are Gonzalo Higuain with 29, Luis Suarez with 24 and Robert Taylor with 17. The latter is a classic, having played more than half the games in the pink books – 108 out of 202.
The rate in front of goal for the No 10 is 0.9 goals per outing. That of his Uruguayan friend is 0.7, so, despite the fact that the ‘Pistolero’ tends to be more directly related to the opposing nets, his ratio is being lower than that of his teammate both in this stage and in the one that brought more happiness to the lives of both, that of Barcelona. Campana, their rival in these records, guarantees 0.326 goals per match, less than half that of the Uruguayan and a third that of the club’s flagship player.
Messi’s impact is such that, when you put together the data since joining Inter Miami, there is no one else who comes close to him in terms of raw numbers. Suarez, starting from the Argentine’s landing before his, has scored 24 times; Leonardo Campana, 17; Robert Taylor, 12, and Matias Rojas and Josef Martinez, 8. The figures show that the former Paris Saint-Germain man has monopolised the attacking duties since his arrival.
Looking at MLS as a whole, there have only been eight players who have scored more goals than Messi since his signing, but all of them have taken the pitch on twice or almost twice as many occasions as he has. His 21 goals in the US League have come in 25 appearances. He trails Facundo Torres – 23 in 49, Cristián Arango – 23 in 43, Luciano Acosta – 24 in 50, Brian White – 24 in 47, Daniel Gazdag – 25 in 48, Christian Benteke – 29 in 42, Dénis Bouanga – 34 in 52 and Cucho Fernández – 36 in 47. On ratio, he is the best: 0.84 goals per event.